Leading activity in infancy: types, description

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

As the child grows and develops, the scope of his possibilities is constantly expanding. Over time, he has a transition from primitive manipulations with objects to more conscious activity. Various types of leading activities in infancy can have a positive impact on the psychological development of the child and form him into a truly versatile and interesting person. Any changes that occur during this period of time have a strong impact on the formation of the baby and the process of becoming his personality.

Features

Pediatricians and psychologists have identified the main distinguishing features of the leading activities of a child in infancy:

• help to develop a number of new actions in the baby, which he will fully master in the future;
• with their help, the emergence and restructuring of certain functions of the psyche of a growing baby occurs;
• affect the personality, make visible changes in it.

The mental development of a child depends onappropriate type of leading activity. When changing activities, one can clearly say that the child has moved to another, more perfect stage of his development.

Structure and main varieties

The process of human mental development from infancy to preschool age is classified into three distinct structures:

• continuing - moved from the previous stage;
• immediate - defines the current stage of leading activity;
• nascent is a stage that is only at the initial stage of its development and will be the main one at the next stage.

To the leading types of activities in infancy and in subsequent periods, experts include:

• child's direct communication with adults and people around him with the help of emotions (age interval from birth to one year);
• subject-manipulative (from one to three years);
• playing (from three years to start school).

For schoolchildren aged 6 to 11, the priority is the educational process, and for adolescents aged 11 to 15, communication with peers. The most important period of development for a child is the period from 0 to 7 years.

Activities from 0 to 1 year

At the beginning of life, the baby is completely dependent on the mother or the person who replaces her. Therefore, it is impossible to determine the leading activity of infants in the period from 0 to 2 months.

With the beginningthe second period (age from two months to a year) for the child, the main process is close emotional communication with a person close to him - his mother. It helps to create important processes in the baby's mental system:

• the ability to share sensations and emotional state on a conscious level;
• involuntary attention (the child gets the opportunity to independently fix his attention on specific objects around for a short period of time);
• the beginnings of visual-effective thinking begin to emerge in his mind;
• perception of surrounding objects;
• appearance of autonomous speech.

Leading activity in infancy helps to form a central, basic neoplasm that determines the transition to the next, more improved stage of development of a small person. In the following time, the need to communicate with other people will become more and more acute.

Goals

The leading activity in infancy is a process that helps to form a full-fledged psyche of the baby, which allows him to move to a higher level of development. At this stage of life, the main role is played by object-manipulative actions, with the help of which the child explores the world around, learns the reality, in which there is a large number of different and interesting objects. All these processes are carried out under the close attention of parents.

The main distinguishing feature of the infantage is the division of lines of development of the psyche of girls and boys. For boys, object-tool activity is very important, for girls it is communicative.

Such processes can be explained by the specifics of communication with children: the cultural norms of relations in society are aimed at forming the distinguishing features of girls from boys through various types of activities. It is for this reason that boys have the most developed abstract thinking, and girls have the most socialization skill.

What does it include?

Regardless of the gender of children, leading activities in infancy is a factor that helps with:

• building self-esteem;
• appearance of visual-effective thinking;
• recognition of people around, their image, voice, speech, type of behavior;
• development of active speech;
• developing involuntary attention in a child;
• development of personal qualities, the concept of "I am myself".

During this period of time, the baby needs trust and more independence.

Education in the first month of life

Starting classes with the baby should be from a very young age. It is important to remember that before the year all the foundations for its further development are laid. Already at this stage, the child understands and perceives a lot: he reacts to the sounds around him, determines the tone of the conversation, melodies, distinguishes light from darkness, recognizes by smell that his mother is somewhere nearby, feels all touches.

A baby has well-developed innate reflexes, for example, he looks for his mother's breasts, sucks her, flinches at too loud or sudden sounds, steps with his legs when lifted and held upright, grabs with his hands.

In this period of time, education should be simple methods. Develop color vision by placing bright rattle toys at a distance of about 30 centimeters from the child's eyes. To teach fixing the gaze by moving a bright toy in front of the child’s eyes at a distance of 20 centimeters, and then, after waiting for the gaze to be fixed on it, move it in the other direction and in the vertical direction. Build your baby's hearing by talking to him in a quiet and calm voice, including music and rattling rattles.

Also, experts recommend carrying the child around the house, telling him about the objects that are around, sharing interesting stories.

Second month of life

Communication is the leading activity of infancy. Physical contacts with parents are additionally connected to communication. The child should be given a sense of security and closeness, carried in his arms, massaged, smiled and tried to evoke a response.

In the second month of life, the education of parents continues to be the development of vision and hearing. Subjects for study are already placed at a distance of 30 to 50 centimeters. Sounds to explore become multifaceted.

In order to develop tactile sensitivity, the baby needs to be giventoys and objects of various shapes. So that the child can hold the head on his own without problems in the future, they begin to roll a bright ball in front of him. The baby will closely follow him, thereby straining the muscles of the neck.

Third month of a baby's life

The leading type of activity in infancy of three months will be the ability to show emotions. In order for the baby to develop the facial muscles of the face, begin to laugh, walk, show different emotions, it is important for him to pay increased attention. The parent should often take the baby in his arms, talk to him for a long time, tell stories, read books, laugh.

Toys at this age will be bells, bells, balloons, rattles and everything that the baby can reach and feel tactilely. The parent is obliged to help the child to explore the world around him and not to forbid being curious.

At this stage of development, the baby begins to copy many of the gestures and habits of the parents, and also takes into account their attitude. For example, if the baby's mother feels fear, the baby will feel the same.

To develop only positive qualities in a child, you should show him as many positive emotions as possible, smile often and give a good mood.

Fourth month of life

At the fourth month, the baby already holds his head on his own, knows how to gesticulate well with his legs and arms, studies objects around, rolls over from his back to his tummy. On items at this time he is notjust looks, but also sees them. Perceives voices around and sounds. Feels the need for a mother, not only to study herself, but also everything around.

The parent should control the baby's daily routine, as well as adjust it, if necessary. At 3-4 months, the average baby needs 15 hours of sleep. 10 hours fall at night, and the rest is distributed evenly throughout the day.

If adults have decided that the child should sleep only in his own bed, then put him only there, thereby cultivating discipline and habit.

Features of education in the fifth month

The child is not just gurgling, but also making distinct sounds. Seeing a toy nearby, he can touch it, as well as hold it firmly in his hands. He continues to perceive all things by taste and tactile sensations.

The child's muscles and limbs have already grown stronger, which gives him the opportunity to rise on his hands, stretch his legs and even get on all fours. It is important for the parent to continue to maintain maximum physical contact with the infant.

It is important to carry the baby in your arms, talk to him often, answer something to his sounds, smile in response. It will also be good to develop a sense of rhythm in the baby, for this you should carry out massage and gymnastics with an account and dance to the music.

A child is very happy when he sees that he is satisfied. He shows emotions in different ways: he is naughty and cries to show discomfort, or he laughs and plays when he is having fun. It is important to remember that with loud cryingthe child does not manipulate parents, but simply shows his needs or dissatisfaction, because he still does not know how to do this in another way.