Foreword

At the heart of correctional and pedagogical work with children with developmental disabilities, the fundamental position of Russian psychology on the genetic connection is implemented. different forms thinking. At 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 either one or another form of thinking can prevail, and in connection with this, the cognitive process of the real world acquires a specific character. At the same time, one must remember that thinking develops in meaningful, purposeful, objective actions.
Performing actions with real objects, moving them in space, changing their functional dependencies, the child gets the opportunity to overcome the static perception. He is aware of the dynamism environment, and most importantly, learns the ability to influence the dynamics of an object according to his own plan or in accordance with the tasks that an adult sets for him. Such a situation of the child's direct influence on the surrounding objects creates favorable conditions for the correlation 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 actions with objects, the child has an incentive motive for his own statements: fixation of the performed action, reasoning, conclusions. Verbal generalization of one's own actions leads to the emergence and improvement of full-fledged images and their manipulation in the mental plane. It is on this basis that images-representations are formed, which become more flexible, dynamic.
The use of the developed system of classes for the development of 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 purposeful classes in the formation of thinking, their huge contribution to the mental education of a child with developmental disabilities. Systematic corrective work arouses interest in the environment in children, leads to independence of their thinking, children stop waiting for solutions to all issues from an adult.
Targeted classes in the formation of thinking significantly change the way a child orients himself in the world around him, teaches 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 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 relationships.
Education aimed at developing thinking has a great influence on speech development child: contributes to the memorization of words, the formation of the main functions of speech (fixing, cognitive, planning). It is important that the desire to fix the distinguished and conscious patterns in the word, developed in the process of classes, leads to an active search for ways for children to verbal expression, to use all the speech possibilities available to them.
The first chapter contains didactic games and exercises that develop visual-effective thinking. The second chapter is devoted to the work on the formation of visual figurative thinking. In the third chapter, lessons are given on the development of elements logical thinking. Visual material is provided for each chapter.
Teaching aid 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 specifics 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 the development of thinking, but play their role throughout the entire subsequent life of a person. Therefore, the unformed thinking processes, going both from perception to visual-active, and from perception to visual-figurative thinking, may turn out to be irreparable at a later age.
The development of thinking in early and preschool age. The first thought processes arise in the child as a result of the knowledge of the properties and relations of the objects surrounding him in the process of their perception and in the course of the 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 children's thinking are practical (effective) in nature, i.e. they are inseparable from the objective activity of the child. This form of thinking is called "visual-effective" and is the earliest.
Visual-effective thinking arises where a person encounters new conditions and a new way of solving a problematic practical task. The child encounters tasks 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 method, serves as a way to transform the situation. When revealing 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 the correct, effective ones and, thus, performs the role of a mental operation.
When solving problematic practical problems, the identification, “discovery” of the properties and relations of objects or phenomena occurs, 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-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. With the mastery of walking, the child's 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 in these cases of trials, attempts, etc. In actions with objects, the child moves away from simple manipulation and moves on to object-playing actions corresponding to the properties of the objects with which they act: for example, he does not knock with a stroller, but rolls it; puts the doll on the bed; puts the cup on the table; interferes with a spoon in a saucepan, etc. 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 strikes another, noise arises, one object can be inserted into another, two objects, colliding, can move 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 direct impact with the hand on the object, but also with the help of another object - indirectly. The object, as a result of the accumulation of some experience in its use, is assigned the role of a means by which one can obtain the desired result. A qualitatively new form of activity is being formed - instrumental, when the child uses auxiliary means to achieve the goal.
Children get acquainted with auxiliary objects first of all in everyday life. Children are fed, and then they themselves eat with a spoon, drink from a cup, etc., they begin to use aids when they need to get something, fix it, move it, etc. The child’s experience gained in solving practical problems, fixed in the ways 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 takes out a toy that has rolled under a cabinet with the help of another one that is suitable in shape and length: a toy-shovel, net, club, etc. Generalization of the experience of activity with objects prepares the generalization of experience in the word, i.e., it prepares the formation of visual-effective thinking in the child.
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, name actions. The inclusion of a word denoting the action being performed qualitatively changes the thought process of the child, even if he does not yet speak colloquial speech. The action denoted by the word acquires the character of a generalized method for solving a group of homogeneous practical problems and is easily transferred to other similar situations. Being included in the practical activity of the child, speech, even at first only audible, as if from within restructures 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 the younger preschool age, profound changes take place both in the content and in the forms of visual-effective thinking. A change in the content of children's visual-effective thinking leads to a change in its structure. Using his generalized experience, the child can mentally prepare, foresee the nature of subsequent events.
Visual-effective thinking contains all the main components of mental activity: goal setting, analysis of conditions, choice of means of achievement. When solving a practical problem task, orienting 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, the child is already freely oriented in the conditions of the practical tasks that arise before him, he can independently find a way out of the problem situation. Under problem situation understand a situation in which it is impossible to act in the usual ways, but you need to transform your past experience, find new ways to use it.
Following visual-effective thinking, visual-figurative thinking arises, which becomes the main type of thinking in a child at a younger preschool age. He solves “in his mind” only those tasks that he used to solve practically.
The simplest visual-figurative thinking (internal plan of action) is considered as the ability to operate with specific images of objects in solving certain problems. For example, a child can imagine how the boy shown in the picture should act, whose car rolled under the cabinet. The ability to operate with images "in the mind" is not a direct result of the child's assimilation 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, gaming activity etc. In turn, the images can differ in the degree of generalization, in the ways of formation and functioning. The mental activity itself acts as an operation with images.
In the future, children begin to operate "in the mind" with complex ideas about objects, their properties, connections and relationships. So, they can imagine in advance a whole that can be made up of the available parts (in the representation, these parts are combined into a whole): what construction can be built from a given constructor, 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 the older preschool age, visual-figurative thinking becomes more and more generalized. Children understand complex schematic images, represent a real situation based on them, and even create such images on their own.
The development of visual-figurative thinking is closely connected with speech, which fixes (reinforces) images - representations.
On the basis of figurative thinking, verbal-logical thinking begins to form at preschool age, which makes it possible to solve a wider range of problems, assimilate 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. At the same time, it must be remembered that visual forms of thinking in preschool age are the main ones.
Between visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking there is a deep two-way connection. On the one hand, the experience of working with objects in 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 orienting- research activities. This transition is carried out when the nature of the orienting-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 plan.
Thus, in preschool age, three main forms of thinking closely interact: visual-active, visual-figurative, and verbal-logical. These forms of thinking form that single process of cognition of the real world, in which, under different conditions, either one or another form of thinking can prevail, and, in this regard, the cognitive process as a whole acquires a specific character. At the same time, speech, acting as a carrier of the mode of action in it, is included early in cognitive activity. This mode of action is reinforced and transmitted through speech. At different stages of the development of thinking, 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 action with objects-tools that have a fixed purpose. Therefore, they do not have the stage of understanding the situation that requires the use of a fixed (generally accepted) tool. In those cases where children, with the help of an adult, use assistive devices, they do not sufficiently generalize their own experience of actions and cannot use it in solving new problems, that is, they do not have a transfer of the mode of action.
Children with developmental disabilities, unlike normally developing peers, do not know how to navigate in the conditions of a problematic practical task, they do not analyze these conditions. Therefore, when trying to achieve the 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 make sense of 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 regulating functions, that is, it allows the child to plan his actions.
In children with developmental disabilities, this need almost never arises. Therefore, they draw attention 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 fixed in the word, and therefore is not generalized, and images - representations are formed slowly and fragmentarily.
Until the end of preschool age, problem children actually lack the ability to solve visual-figurative tasks. When trying to solve such problems, they reveal a lack of connection between the word and the image. In children with developmental disabilities, there is a weak relationship between the main components of mental activity: action, word and image.
In addition, the formation of elements of logical thinking also suffers in them, it develops slowly, and in a different way than in the norm, they develop the ratio of visual and verbal-logical thinking.
The timely formation of visual forms of thinking qualitatively changes the development of the cognitive activity of problem children and constitutes an essential link in preparing them for schooling and socialization.
Ways of forming visual-effective thinking of children with developmental disabilities. When choosing the 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 of various kinds activities (subject, game), communication, in unity with the process of mastering speech.
The basis for the formation of visual-effective thinking of preschoolers is the development of independent orientation and research activities in solving problem-practical problems, as well as the formation of the main functions of speech. In turn, this makes it possible to strengthen the weak relationship between the main components of cognition: action, word, and image.
In the process of acting with objects, the preschooler has a motive for his own statements: reasoning, conclusions. On this basis, images-representations are formed, which become more flexible, dynamic. When performing actions with objects and changing the real situation, the child creates a fundamental basis for the formation of images-representations. Thus, the visual-practical situation is a kind of stage in the establishment of a strong connection between action and word in a preschooler. Based on this connection, full-fledged images-representations can be built.
A system of game-exercises has been developed, aimed at developing the orientation and research activities of children with developmental disabilities.
Exercise games are grouped into four sections.
V 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 games-exercises are included, during which children are introduced to problematic practical situations, they are taught to analyze these situations and use substitute objects.
Third section make up exercise games, during which preschoolers form 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-effective tasks.
Fourth section contains games-exercises to determine the cause that violated the usual course of an action or phenomenon.
The system of games-exercises is presented taking into account the following principles: game motivation of actions; availability of tasks; gradual complication of practical tasks; repeatability, the possibility of independent search for a solution to the problem by each child; children's observation of the actions of their peers in order to reinforce their own experience with the experience of observation, which provides material for generalization; the inclusion of speech in the process of solving problem-practical problems.
At each of these stages, the role of the teacher changes. At the initial stage, when purposeful actions are formed in children, the teacher makes extensive use of joint actions with the child, the ability to imitate. At the same time, the adult generalizes all actions in his speech statements. Then independent search methods of orientation are activated and practical actions child in a problem-practical situation, which the child fixes in active speech. In the future, he develops the ability to plan his practical actions in solving problem-practical problems.

Section 1. Games-exercises for the formation of ideas about the use of objects with a fixed purpose

First of all, it is necessary to teach children to use objects that have a fixed purpose, to form an idea about the use of objects-tools in activities, 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, with the satisfaction of vital needs, a person performs 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 the attention of children to such simple adaptations to objects as a handle, a handle, a handle, a 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 task of the teacher is to generalize this experience, to 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 balloon, ribbon.
Course progress. The teacher shows the children a beautiful box, knocks on it and asks: “What is there?” One child opens the box and takes out a balloon. The teacher emotionally reacts to the appearance of the ball, rejoices and says: “We will play with the ball. It must be inflated, and then you can throw and catch. After that, in front of the children, inflates the balloon and draws the attention of the children to the fact that it is quickly blown away. This is repeated 2-3 times. Then the teacher asks the children: “What to 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 will tie it to the ball and we will play, ”and he ties the ribbon to the ball, paying attention to the fact that the ball does not deflate. Then the children are invited to the circle to play with the ball. The teacher calls the name of each child and tells him: “Catch the ball!”
The game can be repeated on a walk.

GAME "FEED THE BEAR!"
Equipment: a set of children's dishes, a set of children's furniture, a bear.
Course progress. The teacher plays with 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 puts the bear at the table and puts a dinner set in front of him, which lacks a spoon and a cup. The teacher invites the children to feed the bear. If the children do not realize that a spoon is needed for feeding, he takes it out of the cupboard and gives it to the child. Then the teacher says that the bear asks for a drink. Offers the children a jug of water and asks the children: “Where to pour the water?” In case of difficulty, he asks the children to get a cup from the sideboard and give the bear a drink. After performing game actions, the teacher fixes the method of action in the word: “You need to feed with a spoon; drink from a cup."

GAME "LET'S RIDE BUNNS!"
Equipment: two bunnies; two carts - one with a rope, the other without a rope.
Course progress. The teacher invites the children to the play area. 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 the bunnies to 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 the rope to the cart. The teacher ties a rope to the cart, showing the children how to properly grasp the rope. Children take turns rolling bunnies.

GAME "BAKE PIES!"
Equipment: sand molds, scoops.
Course progress. The game is played outside. In warm weather, the teacher organizes the children near the sandbox and invites them to bake pies for dolls. The teacher distributes the 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 distributes scoops to children, shows how to collect sand, pour it into molds and “bake pies”. The teacher clarifies that the sand must be collected with a scoop.

E.A. Strebeleva

Formationthinking

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. Strebelev. - M.: Humanitarian, ed. center VLADOS, 2005. - 180 p. : ill. - (Correctional pedagogy). 18YOU 5-691-00605-3.

The book presents a system of correctional and pedagogical work on the formation of the mental activity of children with deviations in mental development. Given detailed description more than 200 didactic games, exercises, stories, tasks and riddles that contribute to the activation of the cognitive activity of preschool children.

At the end of the manual, two appendices are given with material for educators, in order to understand the creation of a situation for classes with children, and a visual handout for children.

Addressed to teachers-defectologists, psychologists, teachers of colleges and universities, 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

© OOO "Humanitarian Publishing House"

center VLADOS”, 2001 © Series “Correctional Pedagogy”

and serialization.

LLC "Humanitarian Publishing House"

center VLADOS”, 2001 © Art design. Ltd

"Humanitarian Publishing Center

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

Foreword

At the heart of correctional and pedagogical work with children with developmental disabilities, the fundamental position of Russian psychology about the genetic connection of different forms of thinking is implemented. At 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 either one or another form of thinking can prevail, and in connection with this, the cognitive process of the real world acquires a specific character. At the same time, one must remember that thinking develops in meaningful, purposeful, objective actions.

Performing actions with real objects, moving them in space, changing their functional dependencies, the child gets the opportunity to overcome the static perception. He is aware of the dynamism of the environment, and most importantly, he recognizes the possibility of influencing the dynamics of an object according to his own plan or in accordance with the tasks that an adult sets for him. Such a situation of the child's direct influence on the surrounding objects creates favorable conditions for the correlation 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 actions with objects, the child has an incentive motive for his own statements: fixation of the performed action, reasoning, conclusions. Verbal generalization of one's own actions leads to the emergence and improvement of full-fledged images and their manipulation in the mental plane. It is on this basis that images-representations are formed, which become more flexible, dynamic.

The use of the developed system of classes for the development of 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 purposeful classes in the formation of thinking, their huge contribution to the mental education of a child with developmental disabilities. Systematic correctional work arouses in children an interest in the environment, leads to independence of their thinking, children stop waiting for solutions to all issues from an adult.

Targeted classes in the formation of thinking significantly change the way a child orients himself in the world around him, teaches 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 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 relationships.

Education aimed at the development of thinking has a great influence on the speech development of the child: it contributes to the memorization of words, the formation of the main functions of speech (fixing, cognitive, planning). It is important that the desire developed in the course of classes to fix the identified and conscious patterns in the word leads to an active search for ways of verbal expression by children, to the use of all their speech possibilities.

The first chapter contains didactic games and exercises that develop visual-effective thinking. The second chapter is devoted to the work on the formation of visual-figurative thinking. In the third chapter, classes are given 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 preschool children 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 specifics 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 the development of thinking, but play their role throughout the entire subsequent life of a person. Therefore, the unformed thinking processes, going both from perception to visual-active, and from perception to visual-figurative thinking, may turn out to be irreparable at a later age.

The development of thinking in early and preschool age. The first thought processes arise in the child as a result of the knowledge of the properties and relations of the objects surrounding him in the process of their perception and in the course of the 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 children's thinking are of a practical (effective) nature, i.e. they are inseparable from the objective activity of the child. This form of thinking is called "visual-effective" and is the earliest.

Visual-effective thinking arises where a person encounters new conditions and a new way of solving a problematic practical task. The child encounters tasks 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 method, serves as a way to transform the situation. When revealing 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 the correct, effective ones and, thus, performs the role of a mental operation.

When solving problematic practical problems, the identification, “discovery* of the properties and relations of objects or phenomena, the hidden, internal properties of objects are revealed. The ability to obtain new information in the process of practical transformations is directly related to the development of visual-effective thinking.

How is the development of thinking in a child? The first manifestations of visual-effective thinking can be observed at the end of the first - beginning of the second year of life. With the mastery of walking, the child's 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. In actions with objects, the child moves away from simple manipulation and proceeds to object-play actions that correspond to the properties of the objects with which they act: for example, he does not knock with a stroller, but rolls it; he puts the doll on the bed; puts the cup on the table; interferes with a spoon in a saucepan, etc. 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 occurs, one object can be inserted into another, two objects, colliding, can move 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 direct impact with the hand on the object, but also with the help of another object - indirectly. The object, as a result of the accumulation of some experience in its use, is assigned the role of a means by which one can obtain the desired result. A qualitatively new form of activity is being formed - instrumental, when the child uses auxiliary means to achieve the goal.

Children get acquainted with auxiliary objects first of all in everyday life. Children are fed, and then they themselves eat with a spoon, drink from a cup, etc., they begin to use aids when they need to get something, fix 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 takes out a toy that has rolled under the cabinet with the help of another one that is suitable in shape and length: a toy-shovel, net, stick, etc. The generalization of the experience of activity with objects prepares the generalization of experience in the word, i.e. prepares the formation of visual-effective thinking in the child.

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, name actions. The inclusion of a word denoting the action being performed qualitatively changes the thought process of the child, even if he does not yet speak colloquial speech. The action denoted by the word acquires the character of a generalized method for solving a group of homogeneous practical problems and is easily transferred to other similar situations. Being included in the practical activity of the child, speech, even at first only audible, as if from within restructures 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 the younger preschool age, profound changes take place both in the content and in the forms of visual-effective thinking. A change in the content of children's visual-effective thinking leads to a change in its structure. Using his generalized experience, the child can mentally prepare, foresee the nature of subsequent events.

Visual-effective thinking contains all the main components of mental activity: goal setting, analysis of conditions, choice of means of achievement. When solving a practical problem task, orienting 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, the child is already freely oriented in the conditions of practical situations that arise before him.

Tasks, can independently find a way out of a problem situation. A problem situation is understood as a situation in which it is impossible to act in the usual ways, but you need to transform your past experience, find new ways to use it.

Following visual-effective thinking, visual-figurative thinking arises, which becomes the main type of thinking in a child at a younger preschool age. He solves “in his mind” only those tasks that he used to solve practically.

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

In the future, children begin to operate "in the mind" with complex ideas about objects, their properties, connections and relationships. So, they can imagine in advance a whole that can be made up of the available parts (in the representation, these parts are combined into a whole): what construction can be built from a given constructor, 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, and so on. By the older preschool age, visual-figurative thinking becomes more and more generalized. Children understand complex schematic images, represent a real situation on their basis, and even create such images on their own.

The development of visual-figurative thinking is closely connected with speech, which fixes (fixes) images - representations.

On the basis of figurative thinking, verbal-logical thinking begins to form at preschool age, which makes it possible to solve a wider range of problems, assimilate 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. At the same time, it must be remembered that visual forms of thinking in preschool age are the main ones.

There is a deep two-way connection between visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking. On the one hand, the experience of working with objects in 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 a transition from solving elementary to solving complex practical problems.

The transition from visual-active to visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking depends on the degree of formation of higher types of orienting-research activity. This transition is carried out when the nature of orienting-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 plan.

Thus, in preschool age, three main forms of thinking closely interact: visual-effective, visual-figurative, and verbal-logical. These forms of thinking form that single process of cognition of the real world, in which, under different conditions, either one or another form of thinking can prevail, and, in this regard, the cognitive process as a whole acquires a specific character. At the same time, speech, acting as a carrier of the mode of action in it, is included early in cognitive activity. This mode of action is reinforced and transmitted through speech. At different stages of the development of thinking, 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 action with objects-tools that have a fixed purpose. Therefore, they do not have the stage of understanding the situation that requires the use of a fixed (generally accepted) tool. In cases where children, with the help of an adult, use assistive devices, they do not sufficiently generalize their own experience of actions and cannot use it when solving new problems, i.e. they have no mode of action transfer.

Children with developmental disabilities, unlike normally developing peers, do not know how to navigate in the conditions of a problematic practical task, they do not analyze these conditions. Therefore, when trying to achieve the 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 make sense of the situation by analyzing their actions in external speech. This gives them the opportunity to realize their actions, in which speech begins to perform organizing and regulating functions, i.e. allows the child to plan their actions.

In children with developmental disabilities, this need almost never arises. Therefore, they draw attention 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 fixed in the word, and therefore is not generalized, and images - representations are formed slowly and fragmentarily.

Until the end of preschool age, problem children actually lack the ability to solve visual-figurative tasks. When trying to solve such problems, they reveal a lack of connection between the word and the image. In children with developmental disabilities, there is a weak relationship between the main components of mental activity: action, word and image.

In addition, the formation of elements of logical thinking also suffers in them, it develops slowly, and in a different way than in the norm, they develop the ratio of visual and verbal-logical thinking.

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

Ways of forming visual-effective thinking of children with developmental disabilities. When choosing the ways and methods of 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 (objective, play), communication, in unity with the process of mastering speech.

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

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

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

Exercise games are grouped into four sections.

V 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 games-exercises are included, during which children are introduced to problematic practical situations, they are taught to analyze these situations and use substitute objects.

Third section make up exercise games, during which preschoolers form 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-effective tasks.

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

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

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

Chapter1

Games-exercises for the formation of ideas about the use of objects with a fixed purpose

First of all, it is necessary to teach children to use objects that have a fixed purpose, to form an idea about the use of objects-tools in activities, 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, with the satisfaction of vital needs, a person performs 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 the attention of children to such simple adaptations to objects as a handle, a handle, a handle, a 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 task of the teacher is to generalize this experience, to 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, balloon, ribbon.

Progress The teacher shows the children a beautiful box, knocks on it and asks: “What is there?” One child opens the box and takes out a balloon. The teacher emotionally reacts to the appearance of the ball, rejoices and says: “We will play with the ball. It must be inflated, and then you can throw and catch. After that, in front of the children, inflates the balloon and draws the attention of the children to the fact that it is quickly blown away. This is repeated 2-3 times. Then the teacher asks the children: “What to 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's in there?" He opens the box and takes out a ribbon. The teacher exclaims: “Here it is, the ribbon! We will tie it to the ball and we will play, ”and he ties the ribbon to the ball, paying attention to the fact that the ball does not deflate. Then the children are invited to the circle to play with the ball. The teacher calls the name of each child and tells him: “Catch the ball!”

The game can be repeated on a walk.

GAME "FEED THE BEAR!"

Equipment: a set of children's dishes, a set of children's furniture, a bear.

Course progress. The teacher plays with 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 puts the bear at the table and puts a dinner set in front of him, which lacks a spoon and a cup. The teacher invites the children to feed the bear. If the children do not realize that a spoon is needed for feeding, he takes it out of the cupboard and gives it to the child. Then the teacher says that the bear asks for a drink. Offers a jug of water to the children and asks the children: “Where to pour the water? » In case of difficulty, he asks the children to get a cup from the sideboard and give the bear a drink. After performing game actions, the teacher fixes the method of action in the word: “You need to feed with a spoon; drink from a cup."

GAME "LET'S RIDE BUNNS!"

Equipment: two bunnies; two carts - one with a rope, the other without a rope.

Course progress. The teacher invites the children to the play area. 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 the bunnies to 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 the rope to the cart. The teacher ties a rope to the cart, showing the children how to properly grasp the rope. Children take turns rolling bunnies.

GAME "BAKE PIES!"

Equipment: sand molds, scoops.

Course progress. The game is played outside. In warm weather, the teacher organizes the children near the sandbox and invites them to bake pies for dolls. The teacher distributes the 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 distributes scoops to children, shows how to collect sand, pour it into molds and “bake pies”. The teacher clarifies that the sand must be collected with a scoop.

GAME "WE'LL TRANSPORT THE TOYS!"

Equipment: car, rope, bricks, kittens.

Course progress. The teacher invites the children to the play corner and says that they have brought new toys (bricks and kittens) today. Toys lie at the door on a napkin. These toys should be moved to the play area and the children will play with them. The teacher tells the children that it is convenient to transport them by car, showing it (a car without a rope). Invites the child to load a few bricks and bring them. If the child does not pay attention to the fact that the car does not have a rope, the teacher does not stop him, but makes sure that it is inconvenient to carry the car without a rope. Then he fixes the attention of all children on the rope and ties it to the car. Children take turns transporting toys and then building a path for the kittens with bricks.

GAME "CATCH THE FISH!"

Equipment: a pool (or a plastic basin), plastic fish, a net.

Course progress. The teacher invites the children to the pool and says that there are fish there, shows and says that the fish swim quickly when you blow on them. Children blow on fish. Then the teacher invites them to catch a fish, drawing the attention of the children to the net, shows the action with it: “Here, the fish was caught!” Every child catches a fish. In case of difficulty, the teacher helps. Then the teacher summarizes: "It is convenient to catch a fish with a net." At the end of the game, the children will hide the fish in their palms and perform imitation actions - “the fish swims”.

LESSON "WHAT ARE WE SITTING ON?"

Equipment: trays, small toys: mushrooms, Christmas trees.

Course progress. The teacher invites the children to the study room, in which all the chairs are hidden. There are toys on trays on the tables. The teacher sits down in his chair and invites the children to sit down too. Not paying attention to the fact that the children are standing, the teacher reports: “You have beautiful toys on the trays - Christmas trees and mushrooms. Trees need to be planted today. Leave the mushrooms on the trays.” Then he asks: “Children, why are you standing? Sit down!" If the children do not say that they do not have chairs, the teacher says: “Here I am sitting - I am comfortable. What am I sitting on? Where are your chairs? Let's eat them." After the children find and put their chairs, the teacher says: “How convenient it is for all the children to sit on the chairs, now you can plant Christmas trees.” At the end of the lesson, the teacher asks the children: “What is comfortable to sit on?” - and concludes that people are comfortable sitting on chairs.

Equipment: grooves, plastic balls, a net, a can (5 l) of water.

Course progress. It is carried out on a carpet. The teacher shows the children a groove and says that today they will roll the balls along the groove. And the balls are in the bank, you need to get them. The teacher gives the child a net and asks him to get the ball. Then the children take turns taking out the balls with a net. The teacher clarifies how convenient it is to get the balls out of the jar with a net. Then he distributes grooves to the children, and they roll their balls.

GAME "DOLLS COME TO VISIT"

Equipment: children's furniture, children's dishes, sweets, two dolls.

Course progress. It takes place in the play area. The teacher plays up the unexpected arrival of two dolls to visit the children. Then he says that the guests should be treated to tea. The teacher puts the dolls at the table and asks the children what should be put on the table in order to treat the dolls with tea. If the children do not answer, the teacher asks: “What do they drink tea from?” Then he asks the children to get cups, saucers, spoons, a vase from the cupboard and put everything on the table. One child pours tea (from a teapot), the other one stirs it in cups, the third one treats the dolls with sweets. At the end of the game, the teacher clarifies that people drink tea from cups, and dolls also need to be watered from cups.

TASK "FLOWER FIELDS!"

Equipment: a set of items: a watering can, a jar, a cup; indoor plant.

Course progress. The children are sitting at the tables, in front of them they put a houseplant on the table. In the far corner of the room there is a bucket of water. To the side, on the other table, there is a cup, a watering can, a jar. The teacher asks the children to water the flower. In case of difficulty, the teacher asks the child (or two children) to draw water from a bucket into their hands, draws the children's attention to the fact that water is pouring out of their hands. Then he says that there are different objects - it is convenient to draw water in them. The teacher asks the children to take turns bringing water in different objects. After actions of children, he generalizes in a word received by children practical experience: “Water should be taken with a cup, watering can, jar. Watering a flower is most convenient from a watering can.

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. Strebelev. - M.: Humanitarian, ed. center VLADOS, 2005. - 180 p. : ill. - (Correctional pedagogy). 18YOU 5-691-00605-3.

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

At the end of the manual, two appendices are given with material for educators, in order to understand the creation of a situation for classes with children, and a visual handout for children.

Addressed to teachers-defectologists, psychologists, teachers of colleges and universities, 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

© OOO "Humanitarian Publishing House"

center VLADOS”, 2001 © Series “Correctional Pedagogy”

and serialization.

LLC "Humanitarian Publishing House"

center VLADOS”, 2001 © Art design. Ltd

"Humanitarian Publishing Center

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

Foreword

At the heart of correctional and pedagogical work with children with developmental disabilities, the fundamental position of Russian psychology about the genetic connection of different forms of thinking is implemented. At 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 either one or another form of thinking can prevail, and in connection with this, the cognitive process of the real world acquires a specific character. At the same time, one must remember that thinking develops in meaningful, purposeful, objective actions.

Performing actions with real objects, moving them in space, changing their functional dependencies, the child gets the opportunity to overcome the static perception. He is aware of the dynamism of the environment, and most importantly, he recognizes the possibility of influencing the dynamics of an object according to his own plan or in accordance with the tasks that an adult sets for him. Such a situation of the child's direct influence on the surrounding objects creates favorable conditions for the correlation between visual and verbal-logical forms of thinking.

Elena Antonovna Strebeleva

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

Foreword

At the heart of correctional and pedagogical work with children with developmental disabilities, the fundamental position of Russian psychology about the genetic connection of different forms of thinking is implemented. At 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 either one or another form of thinking can prevail, and in connection with this, the cognitive process of the real world acquires a specific character. At the same time, one must remember that thinking develops in meaningful, purposeful, objective actions.

Performing actions with real objects, moving them in space, changing their functional dependencies, the child gets the opportunity to overcome the static perception. He is aware of the dynamism of the environment, and most importantly, he recognizes the possibility of influencing the dynamics of an object according to his own plan or in accordance with the tasks that an adult sets for him. Such a situation of the child's direct influence on the surrounding objects creates favorable conditions for the correlation 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 actions with objects, the child has an incentive motive for his own statements: fixation of the performed action, reasoning, conclusions. Verbal generalization of one's own actions leads to the emergence and improvement of full-fledged images and their manipulation in the mental plane. It is on this basis that images-representations are formed, which become more flexible, dynamic.

The use of the developed system of classes for the development of 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 purposeful classes in the formation of thinking, their huge contribution to the mental education of a child with developmental disabilities. Systematic corrective work arouses in children an interest in the environment, leads to independence of their thinking, children stop waiting for solutions to all issues from an adult.

Targeted classes in the formation of thinking significantly change the way a child orients himself in the world around him, teaches 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 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 relationships.

Education aimed at the development of thinking has a great influence on the speech development of the child: it contributes to the memorization of words, the formation of the main functions of speech (fixing, cognitive, planning). It is important that the desire developed in the course of classes to fix the identified and conscious patterns in the word leads to an active search for ways of verbal expression by children, to the use of all their speech possibilities.

The first chapter contains didactic games and exercises that develop visual-effective thinking. The second chapter is devoted to the work on the formation of visual-figurative thinking. In the third chapter, classes are given 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 preschool children 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 specifics 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 the development of thinking, but play their role throughout the entire subsequent life of a person. Therefore, the unformed thinking processes, going both from perception to visual-active, and from perception to visual-figurative thinking, may turn out to be irreparable at a later age.

The development of thinking in early and preschool age. The first thought processes arise in the child as a result of the knowledge of the properties and relations of the objects surrounding him in the process of their perception and in the course of the 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 linked, and the first glimpses of a child's thinking are of a practical (effective) nature, i.e., they are inseparable from the child's objective activity. This form of thinking is called "visual-effective" and is the earliest.

Visual-effective thinking arises where a person encounters new conditions and a new way of solving a problematic practical task. The child encounters tasks 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 method, serves as a way to transform the situation. When revealing 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 the correct, effective ones and, thus, performs the role of a mental operation.

When solving problematic practical problems, the identification, “discovery” of the properties and relations of objects or phenomena occurs, 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-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. With the mastery of walking, the child's 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 in these cases of trials, attempts, etc. In actions with objects, the child moves away from simple manipulation and moves on to object-playing actions corresponding to the properties of the objects with which they act: for example, he does not knock with a stroller, but rolls it; puts the doll on the bed; puts the cup on the table; interferes with a spoon in a saucepan, etc. 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 strikes another, noise arises, one object can be inserted into another, two objects, colliding, can move 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 direct impact with the hand on the object, but also with the help of another object - indirectly. The object, as a result of the accumulation of some experience in its use, is assigned the role of a means by which one can obtain the desired result. A qualitatively new form of activity is being formed - instrumental, when the child uses auxiliary means to achieve the goal.

Children get acquainted with auxiliary objects first of all in everyday life. Children are fed, and then they themselves eat with a spoon, drink from a cup, etc., they begin to use aids when they need to get something, fix it, move it, etc. The child’s experience gained in solving practical problems, fixed in the ways 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 takes out a toy that has rolled under a cabinet with the help of another one that is suitable in shape and length: a toy-shovel, net, club, etc. Generalization of the experience of activity with objects prepares the generalization of experience in the word, i.e., it prepares the formation of visual-effective thinking in the child.

Foreword

At the heart of correctional and pedagogical work with children with developmental disabilities, the fundamental position of Russian psychology about the genetic connection of different forms of thinking is implemented. At 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 either one or another form of thinking can prevail, and in connection with this, the cognitive process of the real world acquires a specific character. At the same time, one must remember that thinking develops in meaningful, purposeful, objective actions.

Performing actions with real objects, moving them in space, changing their functional dependencies, the child gets the opportunity to overcome the static perception. He is aware of the dynamism of the environment, and most importantly, he recognizes the possibility of influencing the dynamics of an object according to his own plan or in accordance with the tasks that an adult sets for him. Such a situation of the child's direct influence on the surrounding objects creates favorable conditions for the correlation 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 actions with objects, the child has an incentive motive for his own statements: fixation of the performed action, reasoning, conclusions. Verbal generalization of one's own actions leads to the emergence and improvement of full-fledged images and their manipulation in the mental plane. It is on this basis that images-representations are formed, which become more flexible, dynamic.

The use of the developed system of classes for the development of 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 purposeful classes in the formation of thinking, their huge contribution to the mental education of a child with developmental disabilities. Systematic corrective work arouses in children an interest in the environment, leads to independence of their thinking, children stop waiting for solutions to all issues from an adult.

Targeted classes in the formation of thinking significantly change the way a child orients himself in the world around him, teaches 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 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 relationships.

Education aimed at the development of thinking has a great influence on the speech development of the child: it contributes to the memorization of words, the formation of the main functions of speech (fixing, cognitive, planning). It is important that the desire developed in the course of classes to fix the identified and conscious patterns in the word leads to an active search for ways of verbal expression by children, to the use of all their speech possibilities.

The first chapter contains didactic games and exercises that develop visual-effective thinking. The second chapter is devoted to the work on the formation of visual-figurative thinking. In the third chapter, classes are given 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 preschool children 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 specifics 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 the development of thinking, but play their role throughout the entire subsequent life of a person. Therefore, the unformed thinking processes, going both from perception to visual-active, and from perception to visual-figurative thinking, may turn out to be irreparable at a later age.

The development of thinking in early and preschool age. The first thought processes arise in the child as a result of the knowledge of the properties and relations of the objects surrounding him in the process of their perception and in the course of the 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 linked, and the first glimpses of a child's thinking are of a practical (effective) nature, i.e., they are inseparable from the child's objective activity. This form of thinking is called "visual-effective" and is the earliest.

Visual-effective thinking arises where a person encounters new conditions and a new way of solving a problematic practical task. The child encounters tasks 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 method, serves as a way to transform the situation. When revealing 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 the correct, effective ones and, thus, performs the role of a mental operation.

When solving problematic practical problems, the identification, “discovery” of the properties and relations of objects or phenomena occurs, 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-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. With the mastery of walking, the child's 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 in these cases of trials, attempts, etc. In actions with objects, the child moves away from simple manipulation and moves on to object-playing actions corresponding to the properties of the objects with which they act: for example, he does not knock with a stroller, but rolls it; puts the doll on the bed; puts the cup on the table; interferes with a spoon in a saucepan, etc. 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 strikes another, noise arises, one object can be inserted into another, two objects, colliding, can move 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 direct impact with the hand on the object, but also with the help of another object - indirectly. The object, as a result of the accumulation of some experience in its use, is assigned the role of a means by which one can obtain the desired result. A qualitatively new form of activity is being formed - instrumental, when the child uses auxiliary means to achieve the goal.

Children get acquainted with auxiliary objects first of all in everyday life. Children are fed, and then they themselves eat with a spoon, drink from a cup, etc., they begin to use aids when they need to get something, fix it, move it, etc. The child’s experience gained in solving practical problems, fixed in the ways 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 takes out a toy that has rolled under a cabinet with the help of another one that is suitable in shape and length: a toy-shovel, net, club, etc. Generalization of the experience of activity with objects prepares the generalization of experience in the word, i.e., it prepares the formation of visual-effective thinking in the child.

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, name actions. The inclusion of a word denoting the action being performed qualitatively changes the thought process of the child, even if he does not yet speak colloquial speech. The action denoted by the word acquires the character of a generalized method for solving a group of homogeneous practical problems and is easily transferred to other similar situations. Being included in the practical activity of the child, speech, even at first only audible, as if from within restructures 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 the younger preschool age, profound changes take place both in the content and in the forms of visual-effective thinking. A change in the content of children's visual-effective thinking leads to a change in its structure. Using his generalized experience, the child can mentally prepare, foresee the nature of subsequent events.

Visual-effective thinking contains all the main components of mental activity: goal setting, analysis of conditions, choice of means of achievement. When solving a practical problem task, orienting 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, the child is already freely oriented in the conditions of the practical tasks that arise before him, he can independently find a way out of the problem situation. Under problem situation understand a situation in which it is impossible to act in the usual ways, but you need to transform your past experience, find new ways to use it.

Following visual-effective thinking, visual-figurative thinking arises, which becomes the main type of thinking in a child at a younger preschool age. He solves “in his mind” only those tasks that he used to solve practically.

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

In the future, children begin to operate "in the mind" with complex ideas about objects, their properties, connections and relationships. So, they can imagine in advance a whole that can be made up of the available parts (in the representation, these parts are combined into a whole): what construction can be built from a given constructor, 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 the older preschool age, visual-figurative thinking becomes more and more generalized. Children understand complex schematic images, represent a real situation based on them, and even create such images on their own.

The development of visual-figurative thinking is closely connected with speech, which fixes (reinforces) images - representations.

On the basis of figurative thinking, verbal-logical thinking begins to form at preschool age, which makes it possible to solve a wider range of problems, assimilate 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. At the same time, it must be remembered that visual forms of thinking in preschool age are the main ones.

Between visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking there is a deep two-way connection. On the one hand, the experience of working with objects in 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-active to visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking depends on the degree of formation of higher types of orienting-research activity. This transition is carried out when the nature of the orienting-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 plan.

Thus, in preschool age, three main forms of thinking closely interact: visual-active, visual-figurative, and verbal-logical. These forms of thinking form that single process of cognition of the real world, in which, under different conditions, either one or another form of thinking can prevail, and, in this regard, the cognitive process as a whole acquires a specific character. At the same time, speech, acting as a carrier of the mode of action in it, is included early in cognitive activity. This mode of action is reinforced and transmitted through speech. At different stages of the development of thinking, 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 action with objects-tools that have a fixed purpose. Therefore, they do not have the stage of understanding the situation that requires the use of a fixed (generally accepted) tool. In those cases where children, with the help of an adult, use assistive devices, they do not sufficiently generalize their own experience of actions and cannot use it in solving new problems, that is, they do not have a transfer of the mode of action.

Children with developmental disabilities, unlike normally developing peers, do not know how to navigate in the conditions of a problematic practical task, they do not analyze these conditions. Therefore, when trying to achieve the 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 make sense of 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 regulating functions, that is, it allows the child to plan his actions.

In children with developmental disabilities, this need almost never arises. Therefore, they draw attention 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 fixed in the word, and therefore is not generalized, and images - representations are formed slowly and fragmentarily.

Until the end of preschool age, problem children actually lack the ability to solve visual-figurative tasks. When trying to solve such problems, they reveal a lack of connection between the word and the image. In children with developmental disabilities, there is a weak relationship between the main components of mental activity: action, word and image.

In addition, the formation of elements of logical thinking also suffers in them, it develops slowly, and in a different way than in the norm, they develop the ratio of visual and verbal-logical thinking.

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

Ways of forming visual-effective thinking of children with developmental disabilities. When choosing the ways and methods of 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 (objective, play), communication, in unity with the process of mastering speech.

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

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

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

Exercise games are grouped into four sections.

V 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 games-exercises are included, during which children are introduced to problematic practical situations, they are taught to analyze these situations and use substitute objects.

Third section make up exercise games, during which preschoolers form 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-effective tasks.

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

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

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