Early child: features of development, activities and learning

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

The early age of a child is the period of his development from 1 year to 3 years, this is the time when he actively explores the world around him. During this age period, there are many changes in both the psychological and physical development of the baby. It is important for parents to pay attention to important points and create favorable conditions for the successful development of new skills in all areas of children's activities.

Most of the kids are already walking by the age of one, and there are a huge number of opportunities for them to explore the world. It should be borne in mind that everything that the baby interacts with at this time is a means of its development.

Features of this age

This period of a child's life is also called early childhood - a time when mental and physical development are closely interconnected. The main type of activity is the subject, from which by the age of three the game develops. An important role is played by the interaction of the child withparents, it is the adult who acts as a role model in everything: in action, speech, in social interaction with other people.

Mental development

The mental development of children of early preschool age is characterized by spasmodic and high pace. The following factors have the greatest influence on the formation of the child's psyche:

• The ability to walk. Independent movement makes many objects accessible to him, makes it possible to learn to freely navigate in space, to learn to determine the distance to an object.
• The ability to speak. The child is actively beginning to learn speech, and it is this period that is most favorable for the development of this skill.
• Object activity of the child. The kid plays not only with toys, but also with other objects that come into his sight, he gradually masters their purpose and learns to transfer the functions of some objects to others, he replaces the missing things for the game.

Emotional state is of particular importance for the psyche of a young child. If a child feels comfortable and safe, he is more open to new knowledge about the environment, in addition, he is better able to form the social bonds necessary to communicate with children and adults.

Physical development

At an early age, a baby's weight is about a fifth of that of an adult, but much depends on the child's genetic predisposition and physical activity. And its activity is growing every year. As soon as the child begins to walk, new opportunities open up for him to study the surrounding objects, but this is a period of increased injury risk, so parents should be very careful. It is recommended to remove from his field of vision all heavy, sharp, dangerous objects and household chemicals. Plugs must be installed on all sockets.

The figures in children of early preschool age are very peculiar: the back is arched, the stomach is slightly protruded due to the internal organs that continue to grow. In children, wrinkles on the legs and arms disappear, adipose tissue decreases, giving way to muscle. The skeleton is not yet completely ossified, but the bones of the skull and spine have strengthened sufficiently.

Features of speech development

The age period from 1 year to 3 years is the period most predisposing to the speech development of young children. When a baby first enters this age group, he uses only a few words like “dad”, “mother”, “grandfather”, “woman” and so on. But he understands much more, in addition, he correlates specific words with the objects they designate. In order for the development of the speech of young children to go well, you need to constantly communicate with them, that is, comment on your actions all the time, show objects and name them, look at pictures and name all the objects that are shown there, turn to the child with elementary requests.

By the age of 2, the child's active vocabulary should contain about 40-50 words. It should be noted that the opinions of experts on this issue differ significantly. So it's not worth itbe tied to a specific number of words that a two-year-old baby should be able to pronounce. Everything is individual, there are times when the speech of a young child develops a little later, and up to 2 years old he accumulates only a passive vocabulary. But if by the age of 2 the child does not speak at all and there are other neurological disorders, it is worth contacting a specialist and consulting on this issue.

Two-year-old baby does not pronounce all sounds correctly. Most often, children have problems with hissing, whistling and sonorous sounds. They either skip them in their speech or replace them. Both active and passive vocabulary continue to develop. Understanding of instructions improves significantly, at 2 years old the child is able to complete two-syllable tasks, for example, “go to the kitchen and bring your plate.”

In the vocabulary of a young child at 3 years old, there are about 1000 words. Many children speak well in sentences, use case forms, tenses and numbers. Speech at an early age of a child is a means of knowing the world. Parents should be prepared for numerous questions about everything that surrounds him.

If the child's vocabulary is small, he cannot build sentences, parents should consult a speech therapist and neurologist, and independently stimulate the development of the early child's speech.

Objective activities of children at this age

Objective activity in young children is the main and leading one. She has a significant impacton the development of the child and is initially manipulative in nature, improving and developing over time. All actions with objects go through three stages:

• Manipulative actions. If a baby takes a spoon, he still does not know what to do with it, he knocks on objects with it, licks it or performs other manipulations.
• The next stage is the use of the item for its intended purpose. The child already knows what a spoon is for, but still cannot properly hold it in his hand and collect food.
• And the last stage is when the child knows what the object is for and knows how to use it.

When all the stages are mastered, the transfer of actions from one situation to another (similar) becomes available to the baby. And subsequently, a well-known object is used by the child in the game process - this is the stage of development of the game of a young child. For example, a child feeds toys using the same spoon.

In a child of this age, the psyche is affected by correlative and instrumental actions. Correlating - this is bringing several objects into interaction, for example, a pyramid, cubes. Instrumental actions are the performance of certain manipulations with the help of objects, for example, they drink from a mug, sit on a chair, hammer nails, etc.

Crises of this age

Throughout the entire period of a child's early age, parents are faced with two age-related crises that are associated with the child's transition to a new stage of development - a crisis of 1 year and 3 years. Everyone has their ownfeatures.

Crisis 1 year

Depending on the pace of development of the child, the crisis can begin to manifest itself from 9 months and last up to a year and a half. The baby already walks well and feels independent from his parents.

Characteristic features are:

• demanding attention to yourself;
• stubbornness;
• increased desire for independence;
• strong reaction to parents' remarks;
• whims;
• inconsistent behavior.

A young child is becoming more independent every day, but he still needs praise and encouragement. In addition, many actions are not yet fully formed, and some kind of helplessness can be the cause of the baby's bad behavior. For example, he wants to get a toy, but it is high up, he cannot get it and starts screaming and acting up.

Ways to overcome the crisis:

• do not punish him for misconduct and whims;
• create such conditions that there will be as few bans as possible;
• if the prohibitions concern the safety of the child, each of them should be explained to the baby;
• calmly stand your ground.

Toddlers already know how to use manipulative screaming and crying. You need to learn how to respond correctly to such behavior: to give the baby a certain independence. Some moments are better to turn into a game or simply switch the baby's attention to another activity or object.

Crisis 3 years

At about this age, the child becomes aware of himself asindividual, this qualitatively changes his psyche and is reflected in behavior.

Signs of crisis:

• negativism, that is, the baby tends to do everything differently than he is told;
• stubbornness;
• perseverance;
• independence (and even if nothing works out, he still does it himself);
• touchiness;
• bragging.

In order to overcome the crisis, maximum patience, calmness and a positive attitude towards the situation should be shown. Relapses into the child's provocative behavior will only worsen the situation.

You should not compare the baby with other children, scold for minor oversights. It is better to praise him for his achievements during this period of development, to approve his independent actions, even if they seem elementary to an adult. Telling him about your love for him and that they are proud of him is very important for every child to hear.

If possible, provide him with the independence he aspires to. For example, let him choose his own outfit for a walk - even if the T-shirt does not quite fit the pants, you should wear them, because the independence and confidence of the child is more important than clothes that are out of tone.

When to sound the alarm

An experienced child psychologist is familiar with the signs of age-related crises in children, in addition, he knows how best to overcome them. Parents should get advice if they cannot cope with the manifestations of the crisis period on their own and show irritation and some aggression towards their child. Psychologistwill offer ways out of this situation and help to overcome this difficult period.

Early parenting. Styles

Proper upbringing of children lays the necessary prerequisites for character, parents need to pay attention to the correct line of behavior with the child. It is important that all family members share the same parenting style.

Each family has its own specific style of raising a baby. Psychologists identify several of the most popular:

• Authoritarian provides for strict discipline, high expectations are placed on the child. Relationships in such families are rather cool. Dialogue with the baby is in the form of orders and instructions. This style of parenting develops discipline in the child, but everything is good in moderation. Excessive authoritarianism develops lack of initiative in the child, he cannot show independence, he never goes against his parents, but only follows strict orders.
• Liberal is characterized by the absence of prohibitions during education. The main goal of style is to give the child the maximum expression of himself in everything and everywhere. Emotional relationships between parents and children are warm and sincere. Despite the positive features of the style, there are also negative sides. Parents need to set certain boundaries for the baby, otherwise he will not be able to learn to control himself and his actions.
• Democratic is the golden mean between the two previous ones. The atmosphere in the family is warm and friendly, but the child takes authorityparents and follows established orders, strictly adheres to previously defined boundaries. Parents encourage the achievements and successes of the child and provide him with the opportunity to do what he loves. All rules and prohibitions are logically explained to the child, which is why he does not violate them consciously, and not out of fear of his parents. This parenting style is considered the most appropriate for a toddler.

Agree with the child

A feature of young children is that they already understand and realize everything. That is why it is possible to negotiate with them, but parents should understand that this does not mean forcing them to do what an adult needs, agreements should take into account the interests of both parties. Successfully negotiating with a baby means finding the best solution that will suit everyone.

To negotiate with a child, you need to learn to listen to him. It is important that the child understands that his condition is understood and all his desires are taken into account, that he is listened to and heard. If a child comes in with a problem, active listening will help them deal with negative experiences.

It is important to provide choices, to create the illusion of choice. Authoritarian orders will be taken with hostility. The offer to make a choice will strengthen self-confidence and understanding that his opinion is taken into account - there will be no conflict, and at the same time the authority of the parents will not be shaken.

Early children in preschool (kindergarten): adaptation

By the age of three, many children go tokindergarten, adaptation to which can be a real test for parents. Despite the fact that the child shows independence and demonstrates it in every possible way, he is very attached to his parents, so changing the home environment to a kindergarten where there are no mom and dad is a real stress for the baby. Adaptation to a children's institution is a mandatory and important process.

The child must be prepared in advance: do not limit his environment only to the house or the same playground; you should go to visit, visit different places more often. In addition, the age of the baby is important. According to psychologists, adaptation from 1 year to 2 is much more difficult, and after this milestone, the child has already formed an objective activity, and therefore, it is easier to get him interested in new toys and activities.

The effectiveness of adaptation is affected by the he alth of the child, his level of development, individual characteristics, character. The fact that the adaptation of children was completed successfully can be indicated by such signs as he althy sleep, good appetite, good mood.

Early development: harm and benefit

Early development of preschool children means that parents literally from birth use all sorts of techniques in order to comprehensively develop their baby. There are currently many ways to educate a child, but how do you know what a baby needs and what areas need to be developed?

Today, many parents are set on the early development of babies, but the opinion of child psychologists on this issue is ambiguous. Early development has bothpositive as well as negative sides. The positive aspects of teaching young children is that diversity is introduced into the life of the baby. All the techniques and ways of working with them are of interest to most kids.

But there are also negative aspects of early development. According to neurologists, due to numerous activities that do not correspond to the age and level of development of the baby, there is an overload of the central nervous system. Sometimes, due to such an overload, the baby experiences functional underdevelopment of some parts of the brain, which leads to problems in learning and other activities in the future. In addition, parents of young children should not compare the success and achievements of their baby with the success of others and force them to be equal to more successful children, as this can lead to persistent and serious problems with self-esteem.

It should be borne in mind that in the period up to 3-4 years, the child's brain regions are actively formed. Some early development strategies aim to teach numeracy and reading before the age of 4 years. The cerebral cortex is responsible for these skills. Literally the following happens: the energy, which is intended for the development of all departments, is redirected only to the development of the cerebral cortex. As a result, in the future, the child will have neurological problems, he will become impulsive, uncollected, unable to cope with his own emotions.

The natural period of development of the cerebral cortex falls on the age of 4 years, it is from thisage is better to start teaching the child to count and read. Although in any case, it's up to the parents.

Of course, there are children who themselves show an interest in reading at an early age. In this case, such aspirations should be encouraged. This means that their brain is ready to receive such information. But you should never force classes for young children.

Early Development Groups

For children from one to three years old, special groups for early childhood are organized. They are aimed either at a comprehensive development, or at the study of one particular area, for example, groups of artistic creativity, language, and mathematics. Together with the children, their parents are present at the classes, classes for young children are held in a playful way in accordance with the methodology.

When choosing a program for a child, it is important that the classes do not overload him or tire him. If he is naughty, refuses to learn, tries to run away, then they need to be stopped or replaced with others. It is necessary to take into account the individual characteristics of the baby and select activities in accordance with his interests and strengths.

Early Development Methods

There are many methods of early childhood development, each based on certain principles of learning. The most popular ones:

• Montessori Pedagogy. The main principle is the creation of complete freedom in the implementation of the educational process. Also, the methodology involves the creation of a certain educational environment in which each child finds something for himself. Cycle of work with childrenearly age lasts for 3 hours, and children of different ages can be engaged in the same group. Children do not sit in one place, they can easily move around the classroom. The method provides that during the classes, special educational materials are present only in a single copy (each type) - this teaches the child to socially interact with other children.
• The Doman method is aimed at teaching the child to read and involves the use of certain cards in the work. The technique provides for the child to memorize the whole word instead of sequentially studying letters first, then syllables.
• The system of educational games for young children (the Nikitin system) is the basic principle of the joint game of parents and children. In the course of such activities of children, the development, upbringing and improvement of the child takes place. Most of these games are puzzles, puzzles that can be solved using logical and imaginative thinking.

In the system of educational games there are tasks of completely different levels of difficulty, so a small child should be offered something easier and increase the level of difficulty gradually as the previous tasks are successfully completed.

• Zaitsev's method is based on the fact that the main activity at an early age is a game in which every child has a need. The most famous aids of this technique are Zaitsev's cubes, which are used to teach reading. Cubes are different in color, size and sound.
• The program "7 gnomes" is a project that is designed for children fromseveral months to 7 years. Each age is represented by a different color. The technique involves the use of benefits for the comprehensive development of the baby, they can be used both at home and for classes in early development groups.

Developmental delay

The pace of development of each baby is individual, but there are certain limits and norms, deviation from which may indicate a developmental delay. Mental retardation at an early age in most cases can be successfully eliminated.

Signs of a developmental delay in a child at 3 years old:

• Underdevelopment of the speech function, that is, an extremely small vocabulary, its complete absence, unformed speech imitation (does not repeat sounds and words after parents, adults), impaired pronunciation, lack of phrasal speech.
• Problems with everyday skills: can't eat, dress, take care of himself.
• No targeted action.
• Undeveloped gaming activity: games are monotonous, develop much more slowly than normal.

The presence of one or more of these signs should cause parents to turn to an experienced specialist to diagnose young children and receive the necessary recommendations to eliminate developmental disorders.

Reasons for underdevelopment

Child retardation is not an independent disease. This is a consequence of various causes - both congenital andacquired, which affect the child from birth.

So, developmental delay can be provoked:

• Maternal illnesses during pregnancy: infections, injuries, poisoning, and so on.
• Oxygen deficiency in the fetus.
• Complicated, prolonged or rapid labor.
• Injuries that affected the child's brain.
• Genetic abnormalities that affected the normal development of the child's brain.

In addition to difficulties and diseases, mental retardation can be the result of improper upbringing of the baby. According to statistics, such a diagnosis is more often made for children from dysfunctional families, but this does not exclude the appearance of retarded children in ordinary families. Abuse, screaming, scandals can cause a child to develop at a slow pace.

What to do with developmental delays

The sooner you start correcting developmental delays, the better results you can achieve, especially if the reason for the delay is not brain damage, but social factors. To do this, you must follow the recommendations of specialists, constantly deal with the child. Only regular classes and exercises will lead to a good result.

The development of fine motor skills of the hands is very important, this will allow you to more accurately perform all kinds of actions with objects, and also activates the centers of the brain that are responsible for speech development.

Finger gymnastics, massage, games will help the baby in speech development.

Parents need to regularly use manuals that introduce the baby to the concepts of color, shape, size, and also develop large and fine motor skills. You can enroll your child in specialized groups or kindergartens.

Psychological environment and child development

Responsibility for the development of the child lies with the parents. It is they who need to develop a specific plan for the development of the baby and engage with him regularly, then the result will be quickly achieved.

Features of young children are that the child depends on the parents and the psychological atmosphere in the family. An authoritarian parenting style that suppresses any initiatives of the child has a negative impact on the development of the baby. Overprotection also does not provide the child with freedom of action and also adversely affects development.

Aggression towards the child negatively affects his development and provokes the appearance of psychological trauma.

Misunderstanding, tension between husband and wife have a lasting effect on the baby, even if the conflict is subtle. Children are very sensitive, any problems in the family bring discomfort to the world of the baby. That is why the best atmosphere for the development of a baby is harmonious relations between parents, the right upbringing strategy. It is important for a child to feel approval, this brings him confidence in himself and in his abilities. Criticism can provoke unwillingness to do something, isolation, uncertainty, lack of initiative.

Activities and games with children

There are a huge variety of developmental activities and techniques that teachers successfully use in early age groups, but they are also suitable for homework. Basic activities for the development of early childhood activities:

Physical development of the baby

The he althier a child is physically, the more successfully he develops from a psychological point of view. By about a year old, children begin to walk, and for physical development they need to create all the conditions for physical activity. But you don’t need to force them to do certain exercises, you need to turn it into an exciting game, and only in this case the baby will perform all the necessary actions with pleasure.

At one year old, a child needs to be stimulated to move and walk. It is necessary to ask him more often to come up, bring, take away a separate object or toy. All exercises need to be complicated gradually, for young children the complex should not be too long - the child gets tired quickly, 5-6 exercises of 5-6 repetitions are enough.

Exercise should include walking, moving on an incline, side steps, back steps. The whole complex should be selected individually for the child, depending on his level of development.

Development of colloquial speech

From one to three years of age, special attention should be paid to the development of the baby's speech. Speech centers are closely related to fine motor skills. That is why all kinds of finger games for young children must be present in the development program. Existsa huge selection of toys that are aimed at developing the fine motor skills of the child.

The process of speech development itself can be divided into 2 stages: the development of understanding and the formation of active conversational speech. At the stage of development of understanding, a passive vocabulary is formed. You should talk a lot with the child, show and name objects to him, read books with pictures. It should be introduced to nouns, adjectives, learn new words and repeat old ones all the time.

For the development of active conversational speech, you need to stimulate the child to speak. You can use various rhymes in which he needs to offer to finish the endings. You can also use the toys of the child himself to develop speech and stimulate him to speak during role-playing games.

Very much in the development of a child's speech plays how much and how parents communicate with the baby. Speech therapists say that a child needs to talk a lot and correctly, as he builds his speech on the basis of imitation of the conversation of his parents.

Development of hand motor skills

There are 2 types of motor skills:

• Small, it includes precise hand movements.
• General, includes movement of individual muscle groups.

Finger games, modeling, drawing, lacing ribbons, fastening and unbuttoning buttons, sorting out loose objects are good for the development of fine motor skills. You can buy educational games, or you can use improvised items: dough, boxes of cereals, buttons on clothes, and so on.

Forany active games are suitable for the development of general motor skills, the main thing is that they are age-appropriate: ball games, moving up stairs, cycling.

Creative development of the child

A child's creative development is built around objects and games that can be used with imagination:

1. A bag of beans or cereals. You can feel it, toss it, put it on your foot, and so on. You need to invite the child to think of what to do with him.
2. Drawing is a great way for a child's creative development, he is fascinated by the very process in which a pencil, pen or fingers leave a mark, over time the child seeks to depict something specific.
3. Plasticine makes it possible to create three-dimensional figures and transform them into something else. You need to show the child how to sculpt simple shapes, and as the baby develops, complicate the tasks.
4. Music and dance are a great way for a child to express themselves. It is necessary to turn on simple melodies more often and invite the child to dance, and the way he wants. Subsequently, you can show him simple movements.

There are so many ways to develop a child's creativity. But you should not concentrate your efforts on only one type of activity, it is better to provide variety in classes.

Child development at an early age is intense. Parents are only surprised at how quickly their baby grows and how quickly he learns everything. How this development will take place depends on the psychological situation within the family and on how and how muchare engaged with the baby.