Recently, the topic of educational games and toys has become more and more relevant. They strive to develop children as early as possible and most comprehensively. But sometimes the whole process of development comes down to learning. How are these concepts related? What toys are really needed for all-round development?
It is believed that toys intended for children's development must be educational. The child must be able to collect, correlate, do something according to the model, etc. Thus, toys that do not imply a similar purpose (ordinary cars, dolls, balls and bears) do not seem to fit into the category of developing ones.
Many toys have appeared on sale that are positioned as educational. These are "game developing centers" with various sound and light effects, the famous Nikitin and Zaitsev cubes, Montessori manuals, various cards, frames and inserts. as well as all kinds of kits for creativity, unusual designers and even technically equipped rattles. The label, as a rule, contains the word "developing" itself and indicates the age for which this toy is designed.
But the age recommendations on the packages are often frighteningly similar - from 3 years. And it can be very difficult to understand when a toy is really needed. Therefore, questions arise: why sometimes the potential of a toy runs out so quickly? And why does the kid not support the initiative of adults to develop it?
My baby doesn't want to play!
Very soon after the purchase, it turns out that the child does not want or cannot use the toy for its intended purpose. Probably, a similar situation is familiar to many. And there are two problems here. One of them is the lack of age. For example, tricky boards with figures moving along wire paths and rattlers could suit a two-year-old kid who wants to try all kinds of movement and sound. But he is not yet able to follow a complex trajectory, and by the time he is sufficiently prepared for this, the toy will no longer seem interesting.
The second problem is inconsistency with development objectives. A two-year-old girl received a lacing-boot, tried to put it on her leg, but, realizing that this most important property of the boot, from her point of view, was not feasible, she immediately lost interest in it. At the same time, she does not part with her father's shoes and laces them very skillfully.
And a five-year-old boy categorically refuses to see anything other than building material in cubes with letters, lays out magnificent fortresses for his army, like a real bricklayer, and is unenthusiastic about putting concrete words out of cubes.
What is early development?
At an early age, and in preschool too, the emphasis on the bright alphabet instead of dolls and cars leads the child into a sphere that is completely alien to his needs. Probably, many have noticed that most often the meaning of the letters-icons simply does not reach the baby and remains unclaimed.
Of course, at a certain stage, mastering the language of written and digital communication is necessary. But the more attention we pay to the formation of a child's own gaming baggage and creative abilities, the more likely it is that when they get acquainted with the languages of the adult world, they will really be in demand. After all, first of all, the child must learn to create and express the results
of his creativity with his own sign systems.
Therefore, by early development it would be more correct to understand the timely development of objective and play activities. Contacting with the world of things and phenomena, the world of people and relationships, the child develops his own inner world - desires, tastes, interests, possibilities and impossibilities. The child will learn immeasurably more from this seemingly chaotic empirical experience than from all the most beautiful exercises put together. This will become the most valuable baggage that the child himself will want and be able to systematize, will strive to apply it, and consciously, connecting creative imagination and intuition.
The developing effect of a toy is determined primarily by the nature of the game, free from directive instructions. The main function of any toy is to activate free independent children's activities.
As for didactic toys, for the most part they cannot organically fit into the space of free play. A didactic toy presupposes certain limits, “gates”, rather narrow, into which the child must fall in the course of actions. The will of the method of action laid down in the manual begins to dominate the imagination and will of the child, that is, in reality it is the will of an adult leading the child to this algorithm. Items that involve narrowly stereotyped actions can become material for training, but not for play. And if at an early age this practice is useful, then later it hinders development.
The sphere of play is the sphere of images, conventions, possibilities revealed by the child's fantasy. Thus, when didactic materials get into play, they have two ways of manifesting themselves: either in free play they can be used by the child as substitute objects and thus lose their main purpose. An exception, perhaps, here will be the materials of M. Montessori, if they are given the opportunity to use them in free play with their inherent fiction. Then in the game, one way or another, the main properties will be in demand and mastered. Or didactic materials become subjects for classes with certain rules. Those. the child must perform a certain sequence of actions to achieve the result. Thus, it is assumed that the child already has a sufficiently high level of arbitrariness and is psychologically ready to follow the rules presented from outside. Meanwhile, the healthy development of a preschooler involves the formation of rules voluntarily, within a wide range of possi
bilities, in which actions will be invented and changed by the child himself.
Significance of free children's play
Psychologists have long proved that the development of a person occurs in his activity. Creating, inventing, transforming something, a person builds, creates, changes not only the surrounding objects, but also himself. For each age there is a leading activity, in the course of which the development of the personality takes place. For a small child, such a leading activity is an objective and plot-role-playing game. It is in it that the qualities that become the basis of successful learning develop - self-awareness, will and arbitrariness, purposefulness, the ability to plan and sequence actions.
The main thing for a child is emotions, practical actions and figurative representations. Pleasure in this case does not entertain the baby, but is a necessary condition and at the same time a sign of its development.
At an early age, all the surrounding objects call the baby to research. He builds and destroys, thunders, knocks and moves everything that can move. This experience gives him knowledge of himself, his capabilities and the properties of his immediate environment.
Later, the main quality characterizing the new stage of development appears. It is the ability to create conditional space. When a one-year-old kid bangs on the table with a spoon, he just knocks, he likes the sound, likes the movement. But a three-year-old kid knocks on a chair with a spoon and says that this is a hammer, he is repairing the chair. It's already a game. The child feels like a master, acts like a master, and is offended by the sharp “put the spoon back.” The game is still quite simple, but imagine what changes in the inner world of the child this is connected with! He already understands and creates conventions. The substitution of one object for another forms an imaginary space, and the symbolic function of consciousness begins to develop.
At the age of 3-5 years, the child literally absorbs everything that happens and embodies his impressions of events and people's relationships in games. At the age of 5-6, a playing child uses an enviable store of knowledge and life observations. While playing, the baby shows cognitive interest and, thanks to the participation of an adult, satisfies him. The formative beginning in this case is, on the one hand, the impressions received by the baby, and on the other hand, the inalienable opportunities to assimilate them through their own free creative play, to make this experience their own. A real game for a small child is an immense experience of success and failure, socialization and loneliness, leadership and submission, research-discoveries and their consequences, which are the most unexpected
. The main quality of the game is the ability to imagine what is currently not in reality.Playing a sea voyage, the little "captain" asks for help in creating a map, and does not want to use the finished one, because. she is too incomprehensible, and seeks to draw himself and capture his own idea. The passengers of "his ship" (dolls or other children) are provided with provisions and life jackets in case of a storm. Dolphins accompany the ship. You can catch edible fish and cook dinner out of it. Why not cognitive development?
It is in the format of a free role-playing game with its conventions, a moving plot and a small number of attributes that self-awareness and arbitrariness develop. The child is already able to play a specific role (doctor, driver, cashier, etc.), he learns to voluntarily accept the restrictions and rules of behavior. Mental activity is activated - attention, perception, concentration, allocation of general and essential features, the ability to generalize.
"Right" educational toys
Based on this, toys and play materials that give impetus to independent and free creative play can be considered developing. Toys can be conditionally divided into those that relate to the formation of skills of objective activity, and those that develop the social and personal sphere of the child. The first group is more in demand at an early age, the second - in preschool and primary school.
Baby.
The development of perception occurs in communication and observation of individual objects and actions that are not lost among other things. Hanging toys are good: voluminous figures, simple rattles, bells, bells. You can also hang a rag ball, This is the first thing that the baby can pick up.
Sensorimotor coordination involves the consistency of perception with the eyes and actions with the hands. In addition to kitchen utensils, so loved by kids, rattles and toys with moving parts, a groove and a ball for rolling, open boxes with cubes and balls for taking out and putting in, boxes with a lid, a rod with 3-4 rings (the diameter of the hole in the rings is larger than the diameter rod at least 2 times the diameter of the rod) and insert toys (2-3 molds each with obvious differences in size). An excellent toy for the development of motor skills and movements is the ball. It can be rubber or large inflatable; transparent and rolling balls inside; rag or wicker In addition, the ball is a wonderful tool for communication and the ability to receive and give.
A doll is indispensable for social and personal development. Let it be very simple. The child recognizes in it the image of a person. It is good to put it or plant it near the child or hang it over the crib. It can be a knotted doll, a tumbler or a naked doll in clothes.
In the second and third years of life.
Motor skills, attention, speech, and thinking are formed largely due to objective activity. The kid learns the world around him mainly with his hands, i.e. in a visually effective way. For a child of this age, pyramids of 3-5-7 rings in calm colors, cups-liners of various shapes and sizes, matryoshkas - 3-4 local, dynamic toys - an acrobat clown, a bull on a plank and folk toys with moving parts, lace and large beads for stringing, a groove and balls for rolling, wooden cubes, “form boxes”, you need buckets and unpretentious scoops that are convenient for small hands, spatulas, a water mill, nets for “catching” toys from the bath. Household items are also absolutely necessary - spoons, cups, towels, rags, combs, etc. All of them require very specific actions that are not easy for the baby. .
Playing with such things, with sand and water, the baby discovers their qualities. Here lies the beginning of cognitive interest - the search and discovery of various properties and methods of action, purposefulness and perseverance are formed.
Both a girl and a boy need a doll for healthy personal development (a boy needs a doll a boy). It is desirable that it be similar to the child himself. It can be a rag doll in sewn-on clothes, or a naked doll with a set of clothes. The doll needs a crib with a mattress, pillow and blanket and a bath basket. A high comfortable stroller is not only desirable, but also very useful for the game and for the movement of the child. You also need doll utensils, dishes, clothes with simple fasteners.
Absolutely necessary are things that can become substitute objects in the game that contribute to the development of the child's imagination. For example, wooden blocks of different sizes, pieces of cloth, chestnuts, etc.
To develop movements, you need balls of different sizes, a rocking horse, swings, slides, ladders, logs and benches for walking.
For the development of speech, it is useful to tell simple folk tales with repetition for several days in a row, storytelling from pictures. This requires large artistically executed pictures in books with reliable, recognizable images of animals and people.
From 3 to 7 years and older.
As toys, rags of fabrics of various sizes, wooden logs and snags and various objects of indefinite purpose (bars, pieces of bark, nuts, shells, baskets, cords, pillows) are added - toys open to the child's imagination, and allowing various names and methods of use ( capable of serving as substitutes for various objects and characters). The most successful materials for large-scale construction are tables, chairs, polished boards, screens, stairs. For desktop construction, these are wooden construction kits.
We also need simple small dolls (babies, soldiers), dolls of indeterminate gender and age (without a face), and animals (5-15 cm in size), finger puppets and puppets for the theater.
Role-playing requires child dolls of different sexes 30-50 cm, doll furniture, dishes, clothes, attributes for playing a hairdresser, doctor, shop, costume details, transport toys. It is these toys that help to accept and retain a playing role.
Mosaics, materials for modeling, appliqués and drawing should be used for free creativity, without limiting the child to the framework of other people's samples.
Too elaborated toys, their hefty assortment will only slow down the truly comprehensive developmental potential of free play. The main quality of a good toy in terms of development is its openness. The less developed the image, the more opportunities remain to imagine, to speculate. Dolls (like animals) should have only essential features, then the same figure can change: for example, laugh and cry, sleep and run, get upset and angry. It is these toys that awaken and nourish the imagination, allow the baby to realize his plan. The incompleteness of the image of the toy is also important so that the child can see in it those features and show the qualities that he needs at the moment.
The material of toys is of great importance. Children learn a lot through touch. They touch different surfaces and structures everywhere. Listen to the sound, explore various other properties. Children who are surrounded only by plastic things live in an impoverished world. And sensory standards will not save here. If the doll does not differ by touch from a boat, a car or a designer's part, the child is deprived of many vivid impressions. As a rule, toys made of high quality natural materials are more durable, easier to repair, and for a child this is some kind of confirmation of his confidence in the world around him, in his significance and reliability.
Quality, meaningful and satisfying play can only be if children have the opportunity and appropriately organized space for the application of fantasy forces
. Another important condition for its development is the presence of sufficient time and rest for the child. Approximately one and a half hours is the time it takes for development and transformation in the game before the momentum of the game dries up. And by peace is meant the daily opportunity at certain times of the day to devote oneself to the game, without being distracted by TV, radio, harsh voices and emotions in the house.
Hymn to Organized Cleaning
Cleaning has no less developing potential.The organization of space during large-scale construction and the placement of all play materials in their places are two opposite processes that require the child to have an internal plan of action and an idea of the final result, attention and arbitrariness. And laying out numerous little things in basket boxes is a great daily exercise in classification and training of fine motor skills, the proportionality of objects in space. If this business is not shifted to the child, but enthusiastically perform up to six years at the same time together, then you will form the most valuable habit of order.
We should also mention toys that hinder the development of the child.These are numerous electronic transport and musical toys, interactive animals and dolls. They are all united by the illusion of their own activity. Pressed the button - got the result. But for the development of logical thinking, the baby must be able to observe processes that are transparent to children's understanding and trace the patterns himself. Why is there such an abundance of musical instruments in this box? And why no one touches the car, but she goes? After all, the main thing, probably, that caring parents want to inspire their child is the following: “everything is in your hands, you are the creator. You can do everything that is available to your understanding and even more. Your possibilities are in your creativity and freedom.” And in this case, pressing the buttons deceives understanding. The program gives the illusion of freedom and the phantom of activity. The paradox is that with the visible variability of actions and freedom of choice, the child is a prefix to the toy. The toy manipulates him and sets the program of action. I pressed the button - the car went, I pressed another - it made a turn. There is no room left for the child to act, to imagine, fantasize and transform.
A special article is animals and dolls, which respond to swaying and stroking, as well as to long inattention, either by hugging, or by replicas, or by crying. Here, the sphere of emotions and feelings of the baby is subjected to distorted development.
It may be good that everything for a person is thought out, made by someone. Please enjoy! But we want our children to grow up to be creative individuals, responsive and active, right? So when and on what will he himself learn to invent the non-existent, applying his experience and observations, make discoveries, communicate, love not virtually, but really and care. The conclusion suggests itself that the more complex and complete the toy is, the less space it leaves for children's creativity and independent play activities.
Much later, growing up, the child will freely realize himself as an independent, active, courageous and adequate figure. Isn't that the main task of parents?
Therefore, look for good toys that primarily encourage the child to act and create.
