At the present stage, preschool education plays a big role. Even more and more demands are placed on children of senior preschool age every year, especially in senior preschool age before directly entering school. Children must learn to comprehend educational information before they set foot in school.
Often, children of senior preschool age are prepared for school by instilling in them general and special knowledge, certain skills and certain skills. But they do not attach importance to the formation of their cognitive mental processes, and first of all, perception. But this is no less important. And maybe even the basis for successful schooling. After all, if a child of senior preschool age does not learn to perceive information, he will not be able to comprehend, process and evaluate it. The child will not master the school material and curriculum; his knowledge will not be formed.
Types and characteristics of perception in children of senior preschool age
Perception has the main types for learning at school:
- Visual - the child receives information through visual images. Information is processed visually, through the visual analyzing system.
- Auditory - information comes through the phonemic system of sounds, through rhythm and melody.
- Tactile - skin and motor sensations are involved here, and the hand must be in motion.
Some scientists assign perception the role of cognitive activity, as a result of which the child receives a certain type of information, realizes its features, explores and evaluates.
An important regulator of perception is the need to perceive the presented material.
A child’s ability to perceive information is not innate. It is necessary to develop children's perception. Different types of perception are developed by different means.
In older preschool age, perception develops in the form of visual sensations. 80% of all cognitive material that a child receives at this age is perceived through visual analyzers. This is mainly information about the world around us. At the end of the senior preschool age, the baby is no longer mistaken in distinguishing colors, even distinguishing between their shades.
Also, older preschoolers are characterized by high hearing sensitivity. The child distinguishes musical works, their rhythm and tempo.
Tactile sensitivity in older preschoolers develops through outdoor games, gymnastics and physical exercises.
When perceiving space, older preschoolers look for opportunities to explore different forms and try to compare objects. Children aged 5-7 years can navigate space and time quite well. They know when morning comes, when evening comes.
I would especially like to note the peculiarities in artistic perception in children. Children of senior preschool age, listening carefully to stories, try to influence literary characters. Expanding knowledge and ideas about reality contributes to the formation of artistic perception. This is also facilitated by the development of children's speech and thinking.
As for how young children perceive other people, it depends on the relationships established between them. Kids like people who have attractive qualities, adults and children, who easily make contact and communicate. If a child does not like someone, then he treats such a person with visible hostility. The reason may simply be a lack of interaction.
At 5 years old, a child’s perception is still involuntary; by the end of 6 years, children can set goals for studying and researching the properties of various objects, and can compare them.
In order for perception to develop successfully in children of senior preschool age, purposeful work is necessary.
Development of perception at an early age
The article examines the development of the perception process in early childhood. The relevance of the study is due to the most favorable, sensitive period of perception development. An analysis of visual perception indicators from two to three years of age shows that at the age of two, 67% of preschoolers coped with the tasks, and at the age of three, 90%.
Key words: perception, development of the perception process, visual perception, early childhood, leading activity
The article considers development of the perception process in early childhood. Relevance of this study is conditioned by the most favorable, sensitive period of perception's development. Analysis of indicators of visual perception from two years to three years of age shows, that with tasks coped by 67% preschoolers of two years of age, and 90% preschoolers of three years of age.
Keywords: perception, development of the perception process, visual perception, early childhood, leading activity
Perception in early childhood is the leading mental function, on the basis of which mental functions such as memory, attention, thinking and imagination develop. It follows from this that the further mental development of the child is determined by the development of the process of perception in early childhood.
This topic is explored in the works of such authors as: M. M. Bezrukikh, L. A. Wenger, L. S. Vygotsky, P. Ya. Galperin, T. S. Komarova, E. E. Kravtsova and others.
At an early age, a psychological separation of the child from the mother occurs, the range of available objects expands, orientation in space and a certain independence appear, visual-figurative thinking is formed, and the first stable personality qualities emerge.
The leading activity of the child in this period is objective activity, which gradually emerged from the manipulative and instrumental activities of infants. Mastery of objective activity is the basis for the complete and comprehensive development of perception, since the child’s perception in early childhood is woven into the leading activity and is closely related to the objective actions performed [4, p.188].
The development of perception is determined by three components - perceptual actions, which consist in identifying the most characteristic qualities for a given object (information points), sensory standards, which are stable images, and actions of correlating standard images with objects in the surrounding world [1, p.265].
According to L. S. Vygotsky, “all functions of early childhood occur around perception, through perception and with the help of perception. This puts perception in favorable conditions for development at a given age. Perception is served by all aspects of a child’s activity, so no function experiences such a magnificent flourishing at an early age as the perception function” [2, p. 140].
Shapovalenko I.V. believes that for the best development of the ability to perceive at an early age, it is necessary to perform objective actions that require taking into account the properties of objects. These include correlative and instrumental actions aimed at selecting objects by shape, size, color and location in space, as well as actual visual actions, which are aimed, first of all, at the shape and size of objects [4, p. 188].
At an early age, visual and auditory perception develops especially actively. A one-year-old child does not have the ability to consistently and systematically examine an object. It is characterized by picking out one conspicuous sign, reacting to it and recognizing objects only by it. Children of the second year are characterized by the perception of any depicted objects as completely independent; they are not able to perceive drawings or photographs as images of any object or person. The child identifies one specific detail in both the object and the image that attracts his attention, and therefore can name them the same, thereby identifying the object and its image. Subsequently, for children two and a half to three years old, visual choice based on a model becomes possible, which consists in the fact that the child can choose from two objects different in shape, size and color, one that will correspond to the object given as a sample. The characteristic thing is that the child will begin to choose by shape, and then by size and finally by color. Over time, in the third year of a child’s life, well-known objects become permanent models with which he compares the properties of other objects. Such samples can be not only real objects, but also ideas about them that were previously formed and consolidated in the child.
The development of auditory perception is somewhat similar to the development of visual perception. With it, the properties of sounds become significant for the child when they are necessary for his activity, i.e., auditory perception, just like visual perception, is woven into the child’s leading activity. Such an activity associated with the perception of sounds is, first of all, speech communication. That is why phonemic hearing develops especially intensively at an early age [2, p. 142].
With the help of objective actions, the child actively learns about the world around him, which contributes to the development of visual actions that form the basis of perception at an early age. As a result, early age is the most favorable period for the intensive development of perception. It is included in the leading activity and therefore is the leading mental function of the early period of childhood. The development of other mental functions in the future depends on perception.
The relevance of studying perception in early childhood determined the goals and objectives of empirical research. The study of the characteristics of perception in early childhood was carried out on the basis of the municipal budgetary preschool educational institution “Kindergarten No. 1” of a general developmental type with priority implementation of activities for the physical development of children in the city of Melenki, Vladimir region. It was attended by preschoolers 2–3 years old, two-year-old children and seven three-year-old children.
The study used such techniques as “Find paired pictures”, “Disassemble and fold the matryoshka doll” and “Fold the cut pictures” by E. A. Strebeleva [3, p.18].
At the first stage, the “Find paired pictures” technique was used, which was presented to two-year-old children. Individual work was carried out with each child, which involved interaction with the child, observation of his actions and methods of comparing paired pictures, as well as help if difficulties arose when completing tasks. During the research process, the children easily made contact, listened carefully to the task and tried to achieve a positive result.
As a result, the results were obtained, which are presented in Fig. No. 1:
Rice. 1. Indicators of the level of development of visual perception of object pictures
As a result, 90% of two-year-old children received the highest score in finding paired pictures. 90% of children accepted the task and adequately completed the task assigned to them without the help of an adult. Their interest in the final activity was also noticeable. Children enjoyed searching for identical pictures, which made it easier to compare paired pictures. All this indicates that their visual perception of object pictures is developed in accordance with their age. The exception was 10% of children who were unable to complete the task independently and were not interested in the final result, which indicates their developmental delay.
At the second stage, the “Fold the cut pictures” technique was used, which was presented to three-year-old children. Individual work was also carried out with them. During the study, 57% of children had difficulties completing the task, which were solved by showing them a whole picture, which was identical to the cut picture presented to the children earlier.
The results of this stage of the study are presented in Fig. No. 2:
Rice. 2. Indicators of the level of development of holistic perception of an object picture
From the graph shown in Fig. No. 2, it is clear that holistic perception in 57% of three-year-old children is not sufficiently developed. These children were able to make a picture only after the help of an adult who showed them how to complete this task. The rest of the children, making up 43%, by the age of three and a half can quite independently assemble cut pictures the first time. They understand what is required of them and take on the activity with pleasure and strive for a positive final result. It follows from this that holistic perception in these children is developed in accordance with the age norm and develops intensively towards the end of early childhood.
At the next stage of the study, the “Take apart and fold the nesting doll” technique was used, which was presented to both two-year-old and three-year-old preschoolers. Individual work was carried out with each of the children, during which the children easily made contact.
During the study, 43% of two-year-old children had difficulties. Of these, 67% were able to complete the task after being shown the correct actions required to complete the task. 33% of children were unable to complete the task even after being shown the actions.
In three-year-old children, only 10% experienced difficulties. It was possible to solve these difficulties by showing the actions necessary to complete the task. After training, the children easily completed the task.
The results of this stage of the study are shown in Fig. No. 3:
Rice. 3. Comparative analysis of the development of practical orientation to the size of objects at the ages of 2 and 3 years
Using this graph, we can consider the development of practical orientation to the size of objects at an early age. Two-year-old children typically develop this perception by two years and three months. Before this age, especially at 2 years and one month, children, as a rule, already understand the task and are interested in a positive result, but can independently perform the necessary actions only after being shown by an adult. At two years, three months and beyond, children are already able to complete a task independently, that is, they can freely distinguish objects by size. At this age, children do not have problems with disassembling and folding matryoshka dolls.
The development of practical orientation to the size of objects continues at the age of three years. Consequently, children of this age are already characterized by free and independent performance of actions to disassemble and fold a nesting doll, which is proven by the results of the study, which showed that 90% of three-year-old children do not experience difficulties in performing the necessary actions, they do not experience confusion when completing the task.
Consequently, practical orientation to the size of objects begins to develop intensively from 2 years to three months and is fully formed by the age of three.
Thus, in the course of an empirical study of the development of perception at an early age, it was found that perception during this period experiences intensive development and, therefore, is the most favorable period for active formation, and, if necessary, correction.
Based on the results obtained, preschool teachers can effectively organize their educational activities and provide advisory assistance to parents. Based on the fact that early age is a sensitive period for the development of perception, they will be able to help the child achieve the level of perception necessary for the further development of mental functions.
Literature:
- Martsinkovskaya T. D. Developmental psychology: Textbook. for students. higher psychol. textbook institutions / Ed. T. D. Martsinkovskaya. - 3rd ed. / T. Martsinkovskaya, T. Maryutina, Yu. Mikadze, etc. - M.: Academy, 2007. - 528 p. ISBN: 978–5-7695–4471–2
- Smirnova, E. O. Child psychology: Textbook for universities. 3rd ed., revised. - SPb.: Peter. 2009. - 304 p.: ill. ISBN 978–5-388–00494–9
- Strebeleva E. A. Psychological and pedagogical diagnostics of the development of children of early and preschool age: method, manual: with appendix. album “At a Glance. material for examining children”/E. A. Strebeleva, G. A. Mishina, Yu. A. Razenkova and others; edited by E. A. Strebeleva. — 2nd ed., revised. and additional - M.: Education, 2004. - 164 p. +Adj. (268. pp. ill.). ISBN 5–09–012040–4
- Shapovalenko I. V. Developmental psychology (Developmental psychology and developmental psychology). - M.: Gardariki, 2005. - 349 p. ISBN 5–8297–0176–6.
Peculiarities of perception in children of senior preschool age
Auditory perception
Preschool auditory learners need to be given information in the form of audio recordings. You can sing individual sounds, syllables, and listen to CDs with educational texts.
A child’s auditory perception develops well on street walks; it is useful to invite children to listen to sounds, identify the noises and signals of cars, airplane noise, etc. You can ask to distinguish noises with your eyes closed. For example, you can determine whether a car is moving or standing still. Is the car far away or close?
Visual perception
Visual children need to be given more visual information, pictures, and illustrations. While learning to read, you can draw letters, act out scenes with fairy tale characters, and show videos.
Since vision in visual children is the main means of perceiving information, special exercises should be selected for this.
Selecting teaching materials, various mosaics and construction sets is an important way to convey educational information to children. Exercises for the development of visual perception include such as “Fold the pattern”, Dienesh blocks and others. If you use mosaics or puzzles, the parts must be of the optimal size.
Visual gymnastics is a must. It is carried out 3 times a day. The duration of visual exercises is 3-5 minutes. The exercises need to be varied, they must be in a playful form, so that children are emotionally pleased to perform such exercises. Visual games and exercises help improve blood circulation and correct visual processes. You can also use special simulators for this.
Child's tactile perception
A kinesthetic child should draw or, better yet, sculpt letters from plasticine.
To develop a child's tactile perception, you can invite him to explore various natural materials or different objects with a different structure. As a rule, children are good at distinguishing objects by touch by shape and size.
Children of senior preschool age enjoy playing with foil. With their eyes closed, they must first crumple the foil, roll it into a ball, then smooth the foil.
A very interesting exercise is to determine what is inside the ball. Each ball contains various substances - water, flour, sand, peas, various cereals (semolina, rice, buckwheat). Children are asked to find paired balls containing the same substances by touch.
Exercises to develop perception
Exercises for the development of perception are simply necessary for a continuous flow of information into the central nervous system of a preschooler. This information helps to correct the incorrectly formed image in the child’s immature psyche. For example, a child will learn to adequately understand the content of a picture if an adult can give him the appropriate explanations. Parents can invite the child to look at the details of the picture in a certain sequence. You can also choose a picture with a special composition that will make it easier to perceive. Successively more complex games and exercises are ideal for developing children's perception.
To form the concepts of “left-right”, it is necessary to teach the child to distinguish between the left and right hand. After this, you can invite the child to look at a table that shows four objects (on the left is a pen, on the right is a pencil, on top is a brush, below is paint). To consolidate the acquired knowledge, you can play with your child. To play the game you need to prepare cards with images of cars. The kid must determine which direction the cars are going. If they go to the left, then he must put down a red chip, and if they go to the right, a blue one. At the end of the game, the preschooler sums up how many cars went left and how many went right. To complicate the game, you can increase the number of rules, the number of participants, change the form of organization of children, and the pace of the game.
To perform the following exercise for the development of perception in children, you need to stick dots cut out of colored paper in lines on a sheet of thick paper. You can use no less than three and no more than five colors. The adult must arrange the dots in seven lines (14 dots in each line). In this exercise, the child must count the dots in the direction that the game leader gives him. In this case, the presenter must ensure that the indicated direction is maintained during reading, so that the sequence of pronouncing all points is observed.
You can show children outline images of various objects or parts from them, and the child must guess what these objects are.
To develop children's perception, you can use cards with different patterns, and children should create a similar pattern from cubes. After completing the task, the adult must discuss whether the composed ornament corresponds to the sample, and if it does not, then where there are errors.
Features of methods for the formation of perception in preschool age
Based on the nature of perception of educational material, one can turn to visual, practical, game and verbal methods of their formation.
With visual methods, older preschoolers develop the ability to observe visual aids and examine samples of presented educational material.
Practical methods include exercises, experiments and experiments, various studies and modeling.
The main attention is now paid to verbal methods. These are stories from the teacher, children, literature is read to them, conversations with children. This is perhaps one of the main methods in preparing for school.
But the leading activity in preschool age is play. And it is she who should be at the head of the formation of all cognitive mental processes. The child’s perception is most effectively formed during didactic games, when playful and imaginary situations are created and roles are played out.
Types of perception in preschoolers based on perceptual systems
The main types of perception in preschoolers are based on various analyzers:
- Visual, allowing you to visually evaluate all the properties of an object;
- Hearing, which helps to learn speech, recognize the native language, feel the sounds of nature, hear music;
- Tactile, providing knowledge of an object through touch.
Auditory
With the help of hearing, the child learns to recognize the sounds of his native language, words and syllables. If in infancy the perception of speech is based on the rhythmic and melodic structure of words and sentences, then already at 1 year the formation of phonemic hearing begins. The baby needs another year for the acceptance of all the sounds of his native language to take shape and for the formation of a sound culture of speech to begin.
The development of auditory perception is most effective during walks, when the baby listens to the noise of the street, birdsong, the sound of rain, and steps. An excellent exercise is to close your eyes and try to understand from which side the bird is singing, or whether a car is driving far or close.
Visual
Visual perception is the leading one in preschool age. The ability to read, see the beauty of the world, and assess danger depends on it. Its leading role is justified by the fact that vision allows you to capture the entire object as a whole, as well as see details.
Visual signals arrive before the preschooler touches or tastes an object. In addition, examining an object is much safer than other methods of research.
Only at an early age, when the baby begins to comprehend the surrounding reality, his “eyes” are his hands. But at this stage, parents make sure that the child is in a protected space and that only safe objects are in his hands.
According to statistics, the number of visual people (who prefer visual perception) prevails in the world, so the development of this type requires special attention. The task of an adult in preschool age is to sharpen the child’s visual perception, and also to help him expand the range of perceived details.
With preschoolers you need to draw more, study pictures and illustrations. It is these children who enthusiastically engage in appliqué, putting together puzzles and mosaics, continuing to develop their visual senses.
Tactile
Tactile or kinesthetic perception is directly related to touch. Younger preschoolers still trust their hands even more when familiarizing themselves with a new subject. That’s why they so insistently ask to give them something that interests them. More details about tactile perception.
Playing with materials of different structures, modeling, natural substances is a great way to develop the sense of touch. With their eyes closed, children enjoy rolling the foil into balls and smoothing it out. Great joy comes from the exercise of identifying bulk material in a cup. The eyes, of course, must also be blindfolded.
