Early development methods. Developmental techniques

When creating a family, young people take on greater responsibility for each other, and when a little person appears, it is necessary to create all the necessary conditions for his life and development. Good nutrition and healthy sleep are very important for the baby, but do not forget that for a successful future, the harmonious early development of the child as an individual is necessary.

Modern parents can independently choose ways to develop their baby, most techniques are described in detail on the virtual web, there are many books, but it is best to rely on your own observations of babies. You can easily determine what the toddler gravitates towards and, based on this, you can make a choice in favor of one or another early development method. Psychologists and pediatricians advise starting the active development of a child at this age; it is at this age that the psyche and tactile perception of the surrounding world are formed.

For a child in infancy, the attention of parents is very important and it is at this time that it is easiest to invest in your baby the necessary knowledge and skills to form a strong and strong-willed character. Scientists have long believed that it is best to begin a child’s development before attending kindergarten, but over the past twenty years this opinion has changed dramatically. Modern kids are more active and perfectly perceive interesting activities and educational programs in a playful way.

Based on your child’s abilities, you can independently develop a training course based on the proposed modern programs; only parents can make the right choice. Be sure to note that it is best to start training programs from six months, consciousness begins to form under the influence of impressions from the surrounding world, the brain actively grows and absorbs more new information.

How do you know if your child is ready to learn?

All people are different, and in fact, babies do not develop in the same way, some begin to perceive music earlier, others prefer games and learning letters and numbers, but there are basic parameters that will allow parents to determine the level of preparation of their little one. Child psychologists have come to the conclusion that development should begin at the age of six months and by this time the baby should have the following skills:

Children at this age begin to perceive the sounds and speech of others well, so try to tell all your actions, pronounce the names of animals and everything that surrounds the baby. Your baby will make various sounds, which will serve as a signal for you to start active activities.

Analytical skills begin to develop, toddlers respond well to the names of objects and try to take their names.

Most children at this age are already sitting and beginning to actively crawl, which indicates the proper functioning of the musculoskeletal system, but most importantly, you can begin to educate your child using sensory perception and physical activity.

Growing infants very carefully monitor the facial expressions and emotions of the people around them, thanks to this, correct emotional development occurs, which will allow you to choose development methods based on emotions.

Carefully observe your baby, analyze whether he has the necessary skills to start learning. Excessive loads will have a detrimental effect on the physical and emotional state of your baby, so it is important to select the loads in accordance with the development of the baby.

Today there are a lot of gadgets, games and additional ways that allow you to teach a toddler to read and write, but it is best to choose a technique that combines emotional, psychological and physical aspects. Do not forget that the foundations of behavior laid down from an early age will shape the character and personality of your baby in the future. The main task of loving parents is to invest their best, but we should not forget about developing an attitude towards negative actions. Any child should clearly understand what is “possible” and “not possible”.

What types of development programs exist?

Modern parents begin to select educational courses for their children almost from birth, without thinking about the level of stress on the child’s psyche. Specialists from various development centers will help you choose the right development method for your baby, but if you don’t have such an opportunity, you can decide on the right program yourself. Below we will present the most popular methods for the development of preschool children.

Techniques based on visual, emotional and tactile perception

A fairly popular method for the early development of children today is the theory of Dr. Maria Montessori, which is based on tactile and visual perception of the surrounding world.

Main advantage This technique means that the child finds himself in an interesting world, which includes various aspects of life from nature to mathematics and music.

Quite successful teachers believe that the way to develop visual perception in a child is Dienesh technique, which offered a large selection of items of various shapes and colors. These items represent different environmental conditions, and a list of tasks will allow parents to find a better common language with their kids.

Another way to develop analytical skills in young children is to assemble interesting designers, which allow you to think creatively and calculate your actions. This technique was developed in Russia at the beginning of 1990 by the brilliant engineer Voskobovich, who subsequently offered a lot of different options for fairy-tale construction sets for children from two years old.

This group also includes educational toys, which were developed by Nikitina’s parents with many children, they offered the children cubes, circles, construction sets and puzzles of various colors, textures and shapes. Thanks to the proposed training programs, you can quickly form a little one’s understanding of the world around them.

The next group of educational trainings will help develop your child's love of music, reading and mathematics

Older children need to be taught to read, and today there are two interesting programs developed Chaplygina and Zaitsev.

These two programs are based on reading syllables, in each of the sets there are several cubes with letters, as well as a special block that forms syllables. It is much easier for a child to remember letters in the form of cubes because he can associate them with different colors.

Developing musical talents in your little ones is very easy with an interesting family theory Zheleznovykh, this training includes listening to classical and modern music, interesting dance games, as well as funny gestures that form not only hearing, but also visual perception.

According to theory Cuisinaire It is easiest to teach children counting and the slightest mathematical operations at an early age; he developed a set of multi-colored sticks of various lengths, which toddlers associate with numbers. Using these beautiful sticks, you can teach your baby to distinguish where there is more and where there is less. It is quite difficult for even an adult child to perceive letters and numbers, but the playful form and attractive colors make this process fun and as comfortable as possible.

The learning theories presented above are usually intended for children aged one year and older, but there are theories that a child can only be taught everything until he is three years old. The propagandists of such a theory can be considered Tyulenev and the Ibuka method, they claim that using special toys and aids you can teach a young child anything. These methods are contradictory, but despite everything they give excellent results, so parents need to get acquainted with these training programs. It is important to remember that a small child perceives all information only visually, and it is best in the initial stages of learning to observe how the child relates to the information received.

Parents' support for the entire process plays a big role for the baby. You must be patient and take part in all your child's lessons or games. Only together can we achieve the desired results. After studying all the recommendations, consulting with teachers and psychologists, you can make the right choice, but do not forget that the child’s development should be not only intellectual, but also physical. It is necessary to use several programs simultaneously; thanks to this approach, you will be able to direct the abilities of your little one in the right direction and subsequently become a successful adult.

What to choose if your baby is different from other children!

Of course, all children need the correct formation of consciousness, but sometimes situations arise when a child is slightly different from his peers and lags behind in development. Despite the availability of unique technologies and various testing for abnormalities in the womb, children are born with various pathologies and deviations in emotional and intellectual development.

Doman's technique

Parents faced with a similar situation should not despair, because Glen Doman proposed his own method for developing abilities in children with developmental disabilities. Doman is an outstanding neurophysiologist who has been observing children with mental disabilities for a long time, and has proposed his own training program, which promotes the rapid rehabilitation of children. The basis of the theory is that there are a large number of cards demonstrating different aspects of life.

The presented pictures can depict animals, numbers, composers and poets, various political figures, in a word, everything that is connected with the everyday life of any person. The cards are shown to toddlers from six months old several times a day in certain groups, gradually expanding the groups and adding new cards to them.

Using this theory, you can significantly expand your child’s horizons, helping him emotional and intellectual development.

Having obtained excellent results with children with developmental problems, the technique was slightly improved and adapted for teaching children with a normal level of development.

Thanks to the efforts of Glen and his assistants, a large number of scientists and even Nobel laureates have appeared in the world who were lagging behind in their development in their early years, so it is important for parents of special children to pay attention to the proposed program. Parents should understand one important thing: the future of their child depends on how carefully they pay attention to the development of his talents and skills.

Using modern technologies and various teaching methods, it is quite easy to instill in your little one a love of music and creativity, teach them to read and count, and also take care of their psychological and moral development.

It is important for a child to feel the support of his parents at any age, so try to spend as much time as possible together. You can get the best results only by starting any business together; the main thing is to remember that the future of the child depends on what the parents invest in it.

Good afternoon, dear readers! You and I all wish happiness and success to our children. So that they grow up strong, healthy, happy and smart. Most parents think about the upbringing and development of a child even before his birth. A striking example of this is the fact that many pregnant women begin to listen to classical music, accustoming the baby to beauty and promoting the harmonious development of the child. Many teachers and psychologists believe that the early development of a child up to one year old contributes to his more successful adaptation and development in the future.

Early development of children no longer sounds like some kind of innovation, but as a necessity for the further favorable development of the baby. But there are so many different methods around. What to choose? Studying according to the Montessori system? Or choose the principles of Waldorf pedagogy? In this article I will tell you about the most popular early development systems used up to a year, their pros and cons. Let's find out!

Let's start with the most popular methods of early physical development.

For babies who have just been born, the aquatic environment remains more familiar. After all, he spent 9 months in the water element in his mother’s belly, so it is recommended to start exercising immediately after birth, until children’s innate reflexes disappear.

At first, classes can be held at home in the bathtub, and after 2-3 months in the pool, as infant swimming instructors say, “in big water.”

It is better to start classes under the guidance of an experienced instructor, who will tell you how best to hold your baby, what exercises you can do with him and schedule classes for you by month. The main task of an adult is to instill a love of water so that the baby enjoys bathing and swimming.

Swimming develops almost all muscle groups, improves the functioning of the respiratory system and cardiovascular system. By swimming with a baby, we also harden the child and strengthen his immunity.

Such activities can help relieve excess tone, help relax, and even reduce the likelihood that children so often worry. But most importantly, they lift the child’s spirits and bring bright positive emotions to you and your baby. After all, at this time the mother is next to the baby in close bodily contact. What could be better for a newborn?

The main disadvantages of this technique:

• Pool water is still often chlorinated, which can irritate your baby's delicate skin.
• Despite the fact that the water and premises are thoroughly disinfected, the pool is a public place, and the possibility of contracting an infection increases accordingly.

If you are interested in this technique, I suggest you read the book “ Swim before you walk » by V. Skripalev

Dynamic gymnastics for kids: Kitaev and Trunov

This technique differs from conventional massage. It is more dynamic, emotional, you can even call it acrobatic gymnastics. Various dynamic exercises are performed with the child, including throwing up, the baby is twisted and turned in different directions. Most grandmothers, of course, will not be able to look at this calmly, especially since previously it was customary to swaddle children up to almost 6 months.

The authors of this development system propose to combine hardening, massage, exercises on the ball and in the air, thereby providing the child with a lot of opportunities for the development of motor activity. Every month the baby learns new skills - he learns to coordinate the movements of his hands, and the adult’s task is to be a little ahead of the curve, showing the child all the capabilities of his body.

pros:

• The baby is better oriented in space.
• Strengthens the immune system.
• Develops muscle tone.

Minuses:

• If performed incorrectly, exercises can be traumatic! And parents are not always able to correctly calculate the load offered to their baby at home.

Early development of a child up to one year: systems of general early development

Glen Doman Method

Glen Doman is a neurophysiologist. His method focuses on the intensive physical development of children from the very moment of birth and the active development of their intellect.

Doman believes that by taking newborns' excellent visual memory as a basis, they can quickly teach new words and concepts. It is proposed to use special cards on which words or dots (synonyms for numbers) are written large.

These pictures should be shown almost from the first days of the baby’s life, gradually increasing their number and complicating the content every month. You can start with images of toys, fruits, then move on to more complex categories.

You can buy Doman cards at MyToys online store .

How does learning happen? The child is shown a card, then the adult loudly says the word written on it. Classes should be daily, in several approaches of several seconds, where for each second there is one word.

The basics of the technique are outlined in the book “ Glen Doman's Early Development Methodology. From 0 to 4 years »

Here are the main ones:

• The main and best teacher for the early development of a child is the parent himself.
• The earlier training begins, the better!
• Children at an early age can absorb a huge amount of information.

Glen Doman attaches great importance to early physical development! It promotes the idea that a child's physical activity promotes mental development.

The baby, having just been born, already reflexively knows and can crawl and swim. Therefore, it is necessary to try to develop these skills from the very beginning before the child forgets them.

Doman suggested using a special track at home on which a child can practice crawling.
You can place it at a slight angle, thereby making the task a little more difficult. The more active and faster your baby develops physically, the faster he develops intellectually.

Dear readers, my partner is the company Step forward - upon purchase, the Doman track will be delivered to you absolutely free. To do this, you need to name the code word - “Svetlana Beloshenko’s Blog.” When placing an order, tell the operator these magic words - and the track will come to you for free).

Glen Doman's ideas are very infectious, they seem simple and accessible, because with the help of daily activities you can very quickly develop the baby's potential and his innate abilities.

But there are many controversial issues:

• A child's learning mainly involves only vision and hearing.
• A large amount of information can tire a child, and he will lose interest in classes.
• There are no play moments that lead to this age. Development occurs only through passive learning.

Maria Montessori system

Learning occurs only through the child’s imitation of the actions of an adult. This methodology is based on raising children based on spirituality and traditions.

For babies up to one year old, only natural materials are used. Classes include learning how to sculpt, getting acquainted with daily household rituals (how to wash, how to use a towel, etc.).

Folklore is actively used. Using nursery rhymes (mostly fairy tales), drawing, dancing. Teachers of this system exclude tasks for the development of memory and thinking. Until the age of 7, teachers do not teach children reading and counting, believing that abstract concepts such as letters and numbers are not clear and unnecessary at an early age.

Waldorf educators claim that until the age of 3, children learn most intensively. Children acquire a huge amount of knowledge and skills through play. No special tasks or exercises, but only communication with parents, brothers/sisters, and peers.

Observing what is happening around, children imitate an adult, for example, his speech, and thereby learn. The goal of Waldorf pedagogy is to develop the child’s innate talents and abilities.

Lack of “training”, rejection of various technical innovations and inventions. It is believed that watching TV, various videos, even specially selected ones for children, overloads the child’s nervous system. Supporters of this method believe that all kinds of technical innovations and toys do not allow the development of imagination, fantasy and children's ingenuity. Harmonious development occurs through reading, drawing, and imitation of adults.

The main advantages of Waldorf pedagogy:

• Friendly educational atmosphere.
• Individual pace of development for each child.
• Independence from ratings.
• Variety of forms of gaming activity.

Disadvantages of Waldorf pedagogy:

• Education takes place in isolation from the achievements of civilization.
• Not enough attention is paid to the development of intellectual activity.
• There may be difficulties in further adaptation to a regular school (since children are not taught reading and arithmetic).

Cecile Lupan developed her own system of early childhood development, using Glen Doman's methodology as a basis. She moved away from the rigid framework of Doman. Added more emotion and creativity. Cecile described her experience of raising two daughters in the book “ Believe in your child ».

This technique is based on following principles:

• The best teacher is a parent.
• Supporting the child’s interests and desires to learn new things.
• Training must be completed before the child gets tired.
• If your baby's interest wanes, change the type of activity.

The first year of life is of great importance! During his first year, the baby learns a huge amount of new knowledge and skills. During this period of time, Lupan offers parents to solve four main problems:

1. Teach your child to love himself. Show him that he is desired! It is very important to show your love for the baby in every possible way, smile at him more often, caress him, show care, and rejoice at his achievements. If your baby is crying, be sure to go to him! After all, children under one year old cannot manipulate yet. And if your baby cries, it means he needs your attention.
2. Stimulate and develop all five main channels of perception:
   Development of vision. Make faces at him, show him bright pictures, decorate his crib with beautiful bedding, place toys around the house, etc.
   Hearing development. Hum a variety of melodies and songs; when talking to your baby, change your intonation; Listen to different music and fairy tales with your baby. Remember that your speech is a role model, speak clearly and correctly.
   Development of touch. Use different fabrics, give your baby smooth, prickly and soft objects, introduce the concepts of hot and cold.
   Smell and taste. Introduce your child to different scents. For classes, you can make special bags filled with different aromatic herbs. Also encourage your baby to explore different taste sensations. Since small children under one year old learn the properties of objects by pulling them into their mouths, you can choose different safe toys that he could gnaw and chew.
3. Encourage your baby to engage in any physical activity. Immediately after the birth of the child, Lupan suggests performing various gymnastic exercises with the baby, bending arms and legs. As soon as the baby tries to sit on all fours, encourage him to crawl, etc.
4. Speech development. Speech develops from the moment the baby is born. So talk to him often. Voice your actions, name the objects surrounding your baby, change your child's clothes, name parts of the body. Read fairy tales, poems, write stories. Onomatopoeia occupies a special place in the development of speech. Your baby sneezed, repeat it, he said the first “Aha”, say it again with a smile.

Lupan suggests using illustrated cards. See picture below:

This technique recommends making sure to draw up a schedule of classes for a week in advance, or better yet, by month. Yes, you may not be able to do everything exactly as you planned, but you will at least be able to figure out what you have mastered and what you haven’t tried yet.

It is very important, according to Lupan, when actively developing intelligence, to remember the child’s personality, his desires and needs. And the main thing is not the content, but the atmosphere. The main thing is that your baby finds it interesting.

Developmental benefits from 0 to one year

Today, many enrichment programs incorporate the best of basic early development techniques. There are many different educational aids available in the market for children right from birth.

For example, benefits " 7 Dwarfs Schools " Almost every mother has probably heard about him. The annual set consists of several brightly illustrated notebooks. With their help, every parent can easily and naturally introduce their baby to the first poems and jokes, introduce the concepts of day and night, illustrate primary colors, and introduce the concept of “shape.” Although, of course, the School of the Seven Dwarfs does not affect the sphere of the child’s physical development.

You can purchase other sets or individual manuals at link .

All our children are different. And the approach to the development of each child should be individual. Whatever development method you choose for your baby, the main thing is love and respect!

You can choose the best, in your opinion, from the proposed methods and create your own program for your baby. Do things with your baby that you like, and then your baby will love it. Find time for your activities only when you and your baby are in a good mood and success will be visible very soon.

Ekaterina Rakitina

Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Klinikum, Germany

Reading time: 10 minutes

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Article last updated: 03/31/2019

The life stage from 0 to 3 years is a unique period for the development of the brain of children. The brain masters more than half of its potential during the 1st year of life (more precisely 6 months), by 3 years the formation of its structure reaches over 70%, and by 7 years the growth of brain structures is almost complete.

Accelerated development - benefit or harm

One can argue whether it is beneficial to develop children or whether it takes away their childhood. There are teachers and parents who believe that the child will learn to explore the world on his own. Of course, the formation of a child’s brain, the development of speech, thinking, and self-awareness will occur with or without your participation.

Until the age of three, a child is an “absorbing sponge”; his “absorbing mind” absorbs information from the environment. And this information is either educational or random in nature.

If you watch TV in the presence of children, their brain assimilates the data coming from the screen, and whether it is a “horror” movie or an educational cartoon is up to you.

Modern methods mostly use technologies of total reading, quantitative mathematics, music as a catalyst for the formation of speech and thinking, and “adjustment” of educational programs to the periods of children’s development.

Unfortunately, any method provides a choice: either sensory development during sensitive periods (“Montessori method”), or training of the logical apparatus (“Dienesh Blocks”), or “infant drawing” aimed at developing creativity, or the method of Dr. G. Doman - designed to stimulate the accumulation of encyclopedic knowledge by a child.

Therefore, when choosing an early learning program that the child’s mind will master at home, you will have to use several schemes.

You need to teach a child completely, equally training the right and left hemispheres, and helping the child learn to perform actions independently.

Right hemisphere– trains using the method of quickly changing images.

Left hemisphere– is improved by the method of slow repeated repetition of training material.

Main tasks of accelerated development of children

1. Do not let the reflex skills of a child under one year old (grasping, swimming, crawling) fade away.
2. Develop the inclinations that children have.
3. Make maximum use of non-standard activities (dressing with eyes closed) to form additional connections in the brain, improve mnemonic and cognitive functions, and develop speech skills. As well as technologies for reading whole words (not syllables) and quantitative mathematics, musical accompaniment of educational material. This work should begin before the year.

The child's early development plan should be comprehensive and cover sensory, motor, and emotional spheres.

Principles of any fluttering technique

1. You need to start exercising early age, from the moment when children's the body is ready for a certain learning pattern.
2. A baby is a person, an individual, she needs to be respected, appreciated and trusted.
3. Before starting training, you should prepare all the necessary materials, including packets of incentive materials that can be interchanged.
4. It is better to start learning in a comfortable and familiar environment; the baby should be healthy, well-fed, and in a good emotional state.
5. New materials need to be introduced with reasonable regularity.

Review of the main methods of accelerated development

Methodology of M. Gmoshinskaya

“Infant drawing” – designed for children from 6 months. Younger children are not physically ready to draw. Classes are held 2 times a week in the morning. Material: finger paints, paper.

The choice of time of day is determined by the desire to protect children from emotional overload. The first lessons last from 1 minute. Once the child reaches the age of one year, the training time increases by an order of magnitude.

The little man touches the paints, crumples them in his fist, smears them on the paper with his fingers, palms and legs.

As an addition to this system, after the child reaches the age of one year, he can be asked to draw using non-standard means: plastic bottle caps, beans, buttons, rags.

The advantages of this technique: An excellent way to supplement logic programs; it does not require large financial investments or visits to special training centers.

On to the cons The method can be attributed to the narrow focus of the method on the development of creative potential.

Methodology – Dienesh blocks

Designed to train the analytical and logical apparatus, promote speech training, form thinking skills, the ability to identify and retain in memory several properties of an object at the same time, and manipulate objects depending on the identified properties. (For example, find similar/not similar shapes by size/color/shape).

pros This method of teaching has a wide age range; it can easily be offered to children from 1 year to 7 years. The blocks themselves can be purchased at the store or made yourself. This allows you to use this method at home, without additional costs.

Methodology A.A. Saburskaya

"Intellectual Music", is based on the ability of music to influence human psychophysiology. Music contributes to the learning of verbal speech and the formation of imaginative thinking. Improves arithmetic abilities, stimulates the expression of emotions. Children of a very young age perceive and assimilate information presented with musical accompaniment (rhymes, educational songs) to a much higher degree.

M. Montessori method

All parents want their children to be developed, study well and become educated people in the future. And you are no exception!

That is why you think about the development of a child already in the first year of his life. And you're doing it right! After all, the first three years of a baby’s life are the most productive in terms of learning and memory.

Do you really want to develop your baby, but don’t know how to do it? You have many questions: where to start, what you should pay special attention to, what specialists to contact, what are they, what are their features?

Today we will try to find answers to the most important questions about the early development of children.

Early development: how it happens

Early development - This is the education of a child from birth to 6 years. Every child is born with enormous potential, the baby’s brain is actively working, and in the first years of life, connections between nerve cells are established and strengthened in the baby’s brain. It is in the first years that the baby is most receptive to information; he remembers everything perfectly, knows how to copy and has a high degree of curiosity. The child is literally interested in everything, he is open to any knowledge. These characteristics of babies should certainly be used for their education from the first months of life.

Zaitsev's technique

Tyulenev method

Waldorf pedagogy

In context, the child is seen as a harmonious personality. According to this pedagogy, a child must first be taught to understand his place in the world, become a bright and free person, and only then learn to write and read. Personal relationships with parents, other children, and teachers come first.

Irina Kolpakova, : « It is believed that 80% of the information about everything, knowledge and skills that an adult possesses, he receives before the age of 3 years. Therefore, it is quite understandable that modern parents want to fill their child’s head with all kinds of knowledge as much as possible. Now there are many opportunities for this: early development groups, private kindergartens, individual lessons with teachers, computer programs, teaching materials, educational games and cartoons. It is wonderful when parents engage and develop their child. But I must note that everything is good in moderation. Overloading a child with an abundance of information is much worse than not studying at all. A 2-3 year old child cannot study 2-3 languages, one of which is Japanese, for example. And daily trips to a couple of developmental activities exhaust both mother and child. A baby overloaded with activities sleeps poorly, is capricious, restless for no reason, and may become hyperactive and disobedient. And it’s hard to blame him for this; he expresses his protest as best he can. You should be aware of one more consequence of excessive activities in early childhood. Children stuffed with knowledge, when they come to the first grade, are either bored, because... they already know a lot, or they refuse to learn, because by this age they are already tired of studying.”

It doesn’t matter at all what method you choose to develop your baby, the main thing is to surround him with care, love, show him patience and attention, responding to his abilities and preferences. and also do not overdo your studies.

How to develop a baby

School or homework?

Now there are many ts early childhood development centers . Most of these centers accept children after one year, but there are also centers that take on younger children as well. Basically, in such centers, children study together with their parents.

Of course, you can develop your child at home if you acquire the necessary knowledge, consult with experts and develop your own child development program.

Irina Kolpakova, pediatrician, homeopath - Homeopathic Center named after. Demyana Popova: “Choose an early development school close to home or study at home; classes should be short. Alternate intellectual and physical activity. Remember that healthy, timely sleep, diet and walks in the fresh air are much more important for your child than speaking foreign languages ​​and being able to read at 3 years old.”

The choice between homework and training must be made based on many factors: financial, desire, availability of free time, and so on. Remember, the effectiveness of learning does not depend on whether you studied at home or in a special center, it all depends on your diligence and diligence.

Today we will consider the issue of early child development. Every self-respecting parent strives to give their child all the best and necessary. They strive to teach the child to read and count as early and quickly as possible, preferably from infancy. In general, the ability to read has become a kind of milestone for parents, overcoming which the child can with full confidence classify himself and his parents as successful individuals.

Many people understand the term “early development” as mastering skills earlier than expected by age. For example, teach a child to read at 2 years old, and to count at 3 years old. In reality, the age from 1 to 3 years is considered early, and early development is what happens to the child during this period of time. It is during this period of time that the foundations of thinking, speech, memory and imagination are laid. These are the mental processes without which a child cannot become a real person.

In psychology, there is such a thing as a “sensitive period” - this is the time when a child’s brain is most receptive to learning new things. Each block of information has its own time. You can learn to dance, draw, and solve complex problems at any age, if you have the desire. But learning to be a normal, harmoniously developed person (speaking, thinking, learning to live in society) is only until the age of 7.

It is useful to remember that such a period of receptivity has not only an upper limit, but also a lower one. What many parents don’t even know about, or most often conveniently forget. Many parents hang letters and numbers together on rattles above the crib so that the child begins to “develop” as early as possible.

Showing a child and teaching him to read, of course, is not harmful, but it is simply useless. The brain is not yet so developed and is not ready to work in this direction. Even if a child remembers something, it will be absolutely meaningless and without understanding the true meaning of these symbols and squiggles. The lower limit of the sensitive period for learning to read is 4 years, according to some experts, and 6-7 according to others. What a child will study before this age will be completely pointless for the child, and because of them, those things that should be formed at this time may be missed.

If a child under 3 years of age does not learn a single letter, this will not affect his further development in any way, but if by this time he has not mastered basic speech, if he cannot communicate with peers, cannot and does not understand how to put on tights, does not ask to use the potty, and also does not know that you can turn to an adult for help, then for any specialist this is already an alarming signal.

By the age of three, a child must learn to recognize colors and shapes, as well as the size of objects. The best toys for a young child are various inserts, sorters, balls, cubes, and pyramids. The Russian toy – matryoshka – will be priceless. This is one of the most wonderful educational toys in the world. They can be arranged according to height, disassembled and assembled, or nested one inside the other. You can use items with buttons, loops and clasps. Such items develop fine motor skills, and therefore speech.

And the account is not at all necessary. It is much more important to teach him to analyze, think independently, be able to listen, seek new knowledge, and communicate with peers. Successful children in school will be those who know how to think, and not mechanically memorize a lesson.

Also, at first, it is worth spending more time on the physical development of the child. A very good example here is infant swimming. Physical development stimulates the development of intelligence. In the brain, the center for the development of speech is located in close proximity to the center for the development of movements and fine motor skills. By encouraging the child to move, parents develop him intellectually.

The early development of a child is wonderful, but you should not treat it with fanaticism. Of course, it is better to go to school knowing how to read even syllables, and do a little math. The most important thing is not to burden your child with an unbearable burden of knowledge and information that he cannot digest. Everything has its time!