Development of creative thinking and imagination in children

The development of imagination is a consciously chosen process during which a person pursues the goal of improving his imagination, namely making it brighter, deeper and more special.

What is imagination? Imagination is the ability for the unexpected or intended appearance of any images, ideas, and so on in the mind and thoughts.

• Development of imagination in children
• Development of thinking and imagination
• Games to develop imagination
• Courses for the development of intelligence

What arises in thoughts during an imagination may differ from reality. Imagination is a world separate from reality; thoughts, ideas and objects that do not exist in nature can appear in the imagination. It is imagination that helps in the mind to solve problems that require a visual representation.

For example, how to insert a battery into a watch, mouse, calculator, how to close the lid of a saucepan, how to tighten a nut onto a bolt. These are all too simple and obvious examples. How about playing checkers or chess in your head, or assembling a clock mechanism from gears or a house from a construction set. There are many more examples of the use of imagination.

Imagination is divided into four types, each of which differs significantly from the others:

1. Active imagination - a person draws at his own request, builds images in his head.
2. Passive imagination is images that arise unexpectedly, regardless of a person’s desire.
3. Productive imagination is imagination in which reality is transformed creatively.
4. The reproductive imagination is the imagination that restores reality as it is. There is a place for fantasy here, but memory and perception work more.

Development of creative imagination

Creative imagination is a type of imagination that is responsible for creating new thoughts, ideas, plots, objects that will be of value. This is how products of creative activity are created.

Creative imagination is the basis of professions related to art. For example:

1. Writers . Where would we be without creative imagination? Do you want to write beautiful, big, interesting books with a great plot? Or maybe you need to support it? Then you should start developing your creative imagination.
2. Artists . If you do not paint pictures of nature, people, still lifes, but create them yourself, from your head, then you will also need to develop your creative imagination. Then you will have a lot of ideas, a lot of different options for painting a certain moment of the picture.
3. Musicians . They, like no one else, need creativity in their work, because composing good music is not easy, it is a decent load on the imagination, and not just imagination, but creative one.

What types of imagination are there?

Children's imaginations vary. There are three main types of it.

The reconstructive imagination is built on the information that the child has. For example, I read a book or learned a lesson and depicted what I learned, that is, I created an image based on its description.

Creative imagination allows you to create new images based on existing information.

Uncontrolled imagination is associated with the processes that occur in a child’s head, so the images he creates may be incomprehensible and absurd.

Development of imagination in children

By about 5 years old, children have a good amount of experience, which provides an opportunity for the development of creativity and imagination. Children do not need tips from older people, because now the child himself is able to invent games, come up with heroes and even imaginary friends. Parents should not panic about the latter, because this is a common occurrence in young children. After a while, everything will disappear without leaving a trace.

The main thing is to pay more attention to the child, he needs it vitally. He learns, develops, absorbs everything like a sponge.

And if it suddenly turns out that your child has gone too far into such “reality,” then you need to work with him more, talk, communicate. As a last resort, involve a specialist in this matter who will help cope with the problem and bring the child out of a non-existent reality.

The development of imagination in young children occurs during games. The child creates within himself the logic of the characters’ actions. Therefore, remember DO NOT interrupt the child, let him finish his game or help him come to completion, do not violate the logic of the imagination.

If a child runs up with a stick and asks to look at his “horse,” then there is no need to explain to him that it is just a stick. A child is not a fool and understands this himself, it’s just that his imagination is actively working and developing. You need to support him by saying something like: “Yes, you have a great horse! Look how beautiful and curly her mane is!”

This approach will only speed up the process of developing the child’s imagination. You don’t need to do anything special, you just need to set the direction by saying something abstract, for example: “What a beautiful mane!” And ask the child to describe the horse’s mane.

Development of a child's creative imagination

Childhood is the age of acquaintance with literature, books, films, music. It is important that the child reads bright and colorful books, with an interesting plot and interesting characters. I watched good and smart films and cartoons. Thanks to books, a child will be able to move into the world of fantasy, imagination, and find himself in a fairy-tale world. Books are a great helper for developing a child’s creative imagination. What the film shows, the child, like any other person, creates in his imagination.

You can practice with your child to develop creative imagination. Give your child heroes he knows about.

Ask him to answer the following questions:

1. What is the essence of each of the heroes?
2. What are their character traits?
3. what are the strengths?
4. what good are they doing?
5. What is missing in the character and in general in each of the heroes?

And ask him to come up with a story with these characters. If it’s difficult, push it, start the story for your child.

Exercises to develop a child's imagination

1. Exercise 1. Invite your child to trace his palms on paper with paint or a pencil. This will be the basis for their subsequent drawing. Let the child dream up and draw something. For example, a tree (forest) or a butterfly or flowers, an animal...
2. Exercise 2. Give your child a choice of 3 colors that, in his opinion, are most suitable for each other. And let him sketch the entire sheet. What does this drawing resemble?
3. Exercise 3. Ask your child to drop paint in the middle of the sheet. Then have the sheet folded in half. After unfolding, various blots will remain on the sheet. Let the child use his imagination and say what each of them looks like, what it reminds of.
4. Exercise 4. Give your child sheets with unfinished images and ask them to complete them.

The child’s imagination will play a big role; perhaps, instead of the expected answer, he will depict something unusual and suitable for the initial unfinished drawing.

This will be the result of his perfectly working imagination. It happens that a child needs help, so don’t be upset if it doesn’t work out right away. This is normal and means that you need to work with your child so that he can train himself, because he will have a ton of complex and interesting problems ahead (mathematics, physics, geometry, life situations, etc.), which will require the use of imagination to solve!

The role of imagination in a child's life

Manifestations of imagination in a person’s life depend on many factors:

• person's age;
• level of mental development;
• individual characteristics of human development, expressed in the presence of any disorders of psychophysical development, stability of motives for human activity, features of the structure of communication, character traits and temperament;
• development of the learning and education process.

The process of accumulating a child’s experience occurs gradually and is distinguished by a certain originality in comparison with the existing experience of an adult.

It is also necessary to remember that a child and an adult have different interests and, accordingly, the child’s imagination works completely differently than that of an adult.

Note 1

The role of imagination in a child’s life is much more significant than that of an adult; it is with the help of imagination that children learn about the world around them, filling existing gaps in knowledge with the help of imaginary objects and phenomena, thus creating a holistic picture of the world.

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During the process of growth and development, a child's increasing cognitive needs are largely satisfied through imagination. Imagination is a kind of connecting link between what is accessible to the child’s perception and what is not yet accessible to his direct perception. Thus, we can conclude that imagination is the very mental process that contributes to a significant expansion of the boundaries of a child’s knowledge.

In addition, imagination allows the child to become a “participant” in events that are impossible in his real life. With the help of such fictitious “participation”, intellectual, emotional, and moral experience is enriched, it allows you to more deeply organize the process of cognition of the surrounding world, natural, objective and social reality.

Development of imagination in preschool children

The development of preschool children is divided into three stages.

1. Stage 1 – a huge amount of fiction and fantasy. Since during this period the basis is laid for the correct and complete development of the ability of imagination and representation. The stage lasts up to three years.
2. Stage 2 – joint work of fantasies with practice. The child is just learning to build a chain of actions, logic, in order to achieve a result during any task. The stage lasts up to five years.
3. Stage 3 – the child’s ability to imagine, fantasize and create is included in the child’s activities. Fantasies become more active and practically applicable.

Exercises to develop imagination in preschoolers

1. Exercise 1. Ask your child to close his eyes and turn on classical music. Ask what the child imagined while listening to this music. In addition to classical music, you can use modern music; the more variety, the better.
2. Exercise 2. This exercise is performed with several children. Play some music with or without words. Ask your child to dance to the music of something or someone. And the other children, watching the dance, must guess what the first child is trying to convey. This exercise develops the imagination of all children.
3. Exercise 3. This exercise is great for developing creative thinking:

The game leader (an adult) tells the children: “going outside is good, because you can take a walk,” and the children’s goal is to continue the chain, for example: “going outside is good, because it’s good to take a walk.” It’s good to take a walk because it’s useful. It’s good to go for a walk because the weather outside is beautiful. Fine weather is good because the sun is shining. The sun is shining - it’s good because it’s clear. Clear - because there is no rain. There’s no rain because it’s warm.”

Why do you need to develop imagination?

Adults understand that they need to develop the imagination of toddlers, but often do not know how to do it. Child psychologists say that a child with a developed imagination quickly understands new material, better assimilates the information received, and develops creative abilities. Such children, as a rule, grow up balanced and calm. They are able to make informed decisions and realize themselves in their chosen field. If you develop a child’s imagination from childhood, you can with a greater degree of confidence assume that he will grow up to be a creative person. This does not mean that the baby will become a musician, artist or actor in the future. Creative abilities help people of any profession: directors, architects, teachers, etc.

Games to develop imagination

Online games are not only easily accessible but also very useful. There is no need to prepare anything in advance, the main thing is that the child rests for about 20-30 minutes every 15-20 minutes, because during these very breaks new neural connections are built in the brain and the better they are built, the greater the progress will be!

This is similar to how an athlete needs to rest after a good exercise or race to allow his muscles to regain strength.

Complex sorting game

The game “complex sorting” is an excellent training for intelligence and attention. In the center of the screen there is a figure with its own color, and around there are 4 different figures, painted in four different colors. It is written how you need to compare the figure given in the center with those around: by color or shape. You need to think in time and not get lost. The game is against the clock, so hurry up to score the most points.

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Game "Letters and numbers"

1. Trains concentration
2. Improves reaction speed
3. Develops logic and intelligence

Immediately after the start, one of the four windows will show one letter and one number, for example, “U6”. And under the letter with the number a question will appear, for example, “Is the number odd?” or “Is the letter a consonant?” You need to answer questions as quickly as possible.

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Color matrix game

Also, the “color matrix” game will be an excellent trainer for developing intelligence . A field of cells will open in front of you, each of which will be painted in one of two colors. And your goal will be to indicate which color is more on the field at the moment, 1st or 2nd. The game, of course, is for a while and therefore you have to try. As the game progresses, the field will expand, that is. the game becomes more difficult.

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Game "Simplification"

The game “Simplification” is a wonderful trainer, not only for mental arithmetic, but also for intelligence. You will come across examples both simple and complex. But not everything is so complicated in reality, you just need to figure out how to simplify, calculate or find the answer from the ones proposed. To do this, you will have to use your intelligence!

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Visual search

1. Develops voluntary attention
2. Improves concentration
3. Improves attention span

Figures will appear on the screen, among which you need to choose a unique one that is in no way similar to other figures. Some figures may differ in just one small detail, which you need to learn to quickly find. With each successful round the difficulty increases and more points are given :)

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Game "Flank task"

The picture shows a flock of birds, and you will be required to indicate the direction of flight of the central bird. At first you may be confused, but then it will get better. Go!

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Game "Super Memory"

1. Trains visual memory
2. Increases memory capacity
3. Improves memory accuracy

With each move, one new picture appears on the screen. You need to quickly find it and click on it to score as many points as possible in 1.5 minutes. The first 5-7 moves are very easy, and then it becomes noticeably more interesting and difficult.

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Tools for developing imagination

Life experience is the main means of developing imagination. Communicate with different people, take part in all sorts of competitions, events, find your hobby, but don’t limit yourself to just one!

Reading is one of the best means of developing imagination. Reading opens up a world of imagination and interesting stories. The cooler the plot, the more exciting the book, the more vivid the descriptions - the better for your thinking and imagination. And before you even had time to read to the end, you can imagine what will happen next. And then you compare as you read how well the future events in the work were presented. If you make a mistake, it’s not bad, because it’s almost impossible to guess the plot completely, but the experience that you get when imagining is priceless.

Science fiction is the best genre for developing imagination and creativity. Because science fiction is a brighter genre than others.

Sign up for our speed reading . In this course, we will not only speed up reading speed and develop memorization memory, but also perform special exercises to synchronize the hemispheres of the brain and train the imagination to achieve maximum results! The course will even touch on the topic of nutrition and lifestyle. Sign up for the course

Why develop a child's imagination?

The human brain consists of many neurons connected to each other. Their coordinated work solves thousands of small and large problems every day. We regularly need fresh ideas: in kindergarten, school, at work. It is possible to train the brain to produce large volumes of new information at our request.

In childhood, it is easier to accustom yourself to non-standard thinking: the brain is more malleable and plastic, and with the right approach, knowledge is quickly absorbed and consolidated for life.

Since childhood, educators and parents have been concerned about the development of a child’s memory - quick memorization ensures that the child will be able to live in a familiar environment without problems and build social connections according to a certain pattern. Imagination has another function: its task is to predict possible scenarios for the development of events in an unstable situation, to predict the future as accurately as possible. This is a kind of adaptation mechanism given by nature.

Newborns have no imagination at all, but curiosity and a thirst for new knowledge are inherent in everyone. Parents should support their child's ideas, even if they seem like stupid fantasies from the experience of an adult.

It is noticeable that not all preschoolers have a developed imagination. However, regular training always gives a positive result - imagination can and should be developed during training.

Development of thinking and imagination

Thinking and imagination are closely related to each other. Imagination can be considered thinking, only this thinking is higher than reality, it takes you to another world, the world of fantasy. Thinking is a tool that every person has when solving various problems in life.

Thinking can be developed, its speed, depth, freedom, awareness can be changed. Also, thinking can become more accurate, detailed and positive.

How to develop thinking?

1. Take notes and drawings . Get into the habit of expressing your thoughts in writing or drawings. Some people, when explaining or telling something, not only speak, but also draw, that is, they give you a picture and clarify the situation.
2. Tell us your thoughts . It will be useful to express your thoughts to others who will be really interested in it. By telling this to someone you can get feedback. Another plus is that the more you tell your thoughts, the more clear they will be for you (if there were any points that were not clear).
3. Discuss . Discussing thoughts is quite an effective thing. The main thing is that the discussion does not turn into a quarrel. If you suddenly do not agree with your interlocutor’s thesis, then make up your own, but do not start a heated argument, but have a calm conversation.
4. Watch your speech . Thinking and speech are closely related to each other. Therefore, in order to contribute to the development of thinking, it is worth constructing your speech correctly. Advice: exclude the words “problems”, “horror”, “difficult”, include “interesting”, “goal”.

Why are speech and thinking closely related? Thinking is fleeting and difficult to remember, but speech is a different story. Speech is remembered and easier to follow.

Want to improve your thinking? Pay attention to your speech.

1. Pay attention to other people's speech . It’s easier to monitor someone else’s speech than your own. Because someone else’s speech is something new and all the shortcomings and failures in logic can be heard in it. Studying the mistakes of other people's speech will help you find mistakes in your own speech.
2. Improve your skills in working with texts . Analyzing a text can be compared to listening to someone else's speech. In both cases, you look for mistakes, roughness and take notes. Improved thinking depends on word processing skills.

Courses for the development of intelligence

In addition to games, we have interesting courses that will perfectly pump up your brain and improve your intelligence, memory, thinking, and concentration:

Development of memory and attention in a child 5-10 years old

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