The initial period of school life is in the age range from 6-7 to 10-11 years. On the border of preschool and primary school age, a child goes through another age crisis. This fracture may begin at age 7, and may have shifted by age 6 or 8.

Causes of the crisis 7 years. The reason for the crisis is that the child has outgrown the system of relationships in which he is included.
The crisis for 3 years was associated with the awareness of oneself as an active subject in the world of objects. Saying "I myself", the child tried to act in this world, to change it. Now he comes to realize his place in the world of public relations. He discovers the significance of a new social position - the position of a schoolchild associated with the performance of educational work highly valued by adults.

Psychological restructuring. The formation of an appropriate internal position radically changes the child's self-awareness. According to L.I.Bozhovich, the crisis of 7 years is the period of the birth of the child's social “I”.

A little schoolboy plays with enthusiasm, but play ceases to be the main content of his life. During the crisis period, profound changes occur in the emotional sphere of the child, prepared by the entire course of personal development in preschool age.
During the 7-year crisis, it appears that L.S. Vygotsky calls the generalization of experiences. A chain of failures or successes (in school, in communication), each time approximately the same experienced by the child, leads to the formation of a stable affective complex - a feeling of inferiority, humiliation, offended pride or a sense of self-importance, competence, exclusivity. Of course, in the future, these affective formations can change, even disappear as the accumulation of experience of a different kind.

When a child enters school, his development begins to be determined by educational activity, which becomes the leading one. This activity determines the nature of other types of activity: play, work and communication.
Educational activity goes a long way of formation. The development of educational activities will continue throughout the years of school life, but the foundations are laid in the first years of schooling. The primary school age has the main load in the formation of educational activity, since at this age the main components of educational activity are formed: educational actions, control and self-regulation.

In primary school age, under the influence of educational activity, great changes occur in the cognitive sphere of the child.

The most significant changes can be observed in the field of thinking, which acquires abstract and generalized. Vygotsky called the younger school age a sensitive period for the development of conceptual thinking.

The child learns to think in scientific terms, which become the basis of thinking in adolescence.

Thinking becomes the dominant function, begins to determine the work of all other functions of consciousness - they are intellectualized and become arbitrary.

In the field of perception, there is a transition from involuntary perception of a preschooler to purposeful voluntary observation of an object that obeys a specific task.

Memory takes on a pronounced character. Changes in memory at this age are associated with the fact that the child, first, begins to realize a special mnemonic task; he separates this task from any other. Secondly, at primary school age, there is an intensive formation of memorization techniques. The teacher guides the techniques of meaningful memorization and techniques of reproduction. Teaches children to make an answer plan by dividing the material into semantic parts.

Attention develops in early school age. If involuntary attention still predominates in grade 1, then by grade 3 it becomes voluntary. The arbitrariness of attention, the ability to deliberately direct it to a particular task is an important acquisition of primary school age. Initially, the attention of students is controlled by the teacher, who sets a goal and controls the progress of the assignment, then the student acquires the ability to complete the assignment on his own.

Development of perception

Perception is the process of receiving and processing by a younger student of various information entering the brain through the senses. This process ends with the formation of the image.

Although children come to school with sufficiently developed perception processes, in educational activity it is reduced only to recognizing and naming shapes and colors. First-graders lack a systematic analysis of the perceived properties and qualities of objects themselves.

The child's ability to analyze and differentiate perceived objects is associated with the formation in him of a more complex type of activity than sensing and distinguishing between individual immediate properties of things. This type of activity, called observation, is especially intensive in the process of school learning. In the classroom, the student receives, and then he himself formulates the tasks of perceiving certain examples and aids. Thanks to this, perception becomes purposeful. Then the child can independently plan the work of perception and deliberately carry it out in accordance with the plan, separating the main from the secondary, establishing a hierarchy of perceived attributes, differentiating them according to their generality, etc. Such perception, synthesized with other types of cognitive activity (attention, thinking), takes the form of purposeful and voluntary observation. With a sufficiently developed observation, one can speak of the child's observation ability as a special quality of his personality. Research shows that this important quality can be significantly developed in primary schooling in all primary school children.

Development of attention

Attention is a state of psychological concentration, concentration on an object.

Children who come to school do not yet have focused attention. They turn their attention mainly to what they are directly interested in, what stands out for its brightness and unusualness (involuntary attention). The conditions of school work from the first days require the child to monitor such subjects and assimilate such information that at the moment does not interest him at all. Gradually, the child learns to direct and sustainably maintain attention on the necessary, and not just outwardly attractive objects. In grades II-III, many students already have voluntary attention, concentrating it on any material explained by the teacher or found in a book. The arbitrariness of attention, the ability to deliberately direct it to a particular task is an important acquisition of primary school age.

Experience shows that a clear external organization of a child's actions, a message to him of such patterns, an indication of such external means, using which he can direct his own consciousness, is of great importance in the formation of voluntary attention. For example, in the purposeful performance of phonetic analysis, an important role is played by the use by first graders of such external means of fixing sounds and their order, such as cardboard chips. The exact sequence of their laying out organizes the attention of children, helps them to concentrate on working with complex, subtle and "flying" sound material.

The self-organization of the child is a consequence of the organization initially created and directed by adults, especially the teacher. The general direction of development of attention is that from achieving the goal set by the teacher, the child moves on to the controlled solution of tasks set by him.

In first-graders, voluntary attention is unstable, since they do not yet have internal means of self-regulation. Therefore, an experienced teacher resorts to various types of educational work, replacing each other in the lesson and not bothering children (verbal counting in different ways, solving problems and checking the results, explaining a new technique of written calculations, training in their implementation, etc.). In grades I-II students, attention is more stable when performing external than actual mental actions. It is important to use this feature in the classroom, alternating mental activities with drawing up graphic diagrams, drawings, layouts, creating applications. When performing simple, but monotonous activities, younger students are distracted more often than when solving more complex tasks that require the use of different methods and techniques of work.



Cognitive processes include perception, attention, memory, imagination and thinking. Let us characterize the manifestation of cognitive processes inherent in primary school age.

✏ Perception. This is a cognitive mental process, consisting in a holistic reflection of objects, events, situations. This phenomenon underlies the knowledge of the world. The basis of knowledge of a younger student is the direct perception of the world around him. All types of perception are important for educational activity: the perception of the shape of objects, time, space. If we look at the reflection of the information received, then we can distinguish two types of perception: descriptive and explanatory. Descriptive children are fact-oriented. That is, such a child can retell the text close to the original, but will not delve into the meaning especially. The explanatory type, on the contrary, in search of the meaning of the work, may not remember its essence. Individual characteristics inherent in a person also affect perception. Some children are focused on the accuracy of perception, he does not turn to guesswork, does not try to conjecture what he has read or heard. The other individual type, on the contrary, seeks to conjecture information, to fill it with his own preconceived individual opinion. The perception of a younger student is involuntary. Children come to school with a sufficiently developed perception. But this perception boils down to recognizing the shape and color of the presented objects. At the same time, children see in an object not the main, special, but bright, that is, what stands out against the background of other objects.

✏ Thinking... At primary school age, the child's thinking moves from visual-figurative to verbal-logical. It relies on visual images and representations. The thinking activity of younger schoolchildren is in many ways still reminiscent of the thinking of preschoolers. To understand this cognitive process, it is necessary to understand the peculiarities of the development of mental operations in younger students. They include components such as analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, and specification.

✎Analysis- this is the mental dismemberment of an object into separate parts and the allocation of properties, qualities or traits in it. In the younger schoolchild, a practically effective and sensual analysis prevails. It is easier for children to solve problems using specific objects (sticks, models of objects, cubes, etc.) or to find parts of objects by observing them visually. This can be both a model of an object and the natural conditions in which the object resides.

✎Synthesis is the ability to logically build a mental chain from simple to complex. Analysis and synthesis are closely related. The more profoundly the child masters analysis, the more complete the synthesis. If we show the child a plot picture and do not say its name, then the description of this picture will look like a simple listing of the objects drawn. The message of the name of the picture improves the quality of the analysis, helps the child to understand the meaning of the whole picture as a whole.

✎Comparison... This is a comparison of objects or phenomena in order to find common or different in them. Younger schoolchildren are compared according to vivid signs, according to what is striking. It can be a round object or a bright color. Some children manage, comparing objects, to highlight the greatest number of signs, others the least.

✎Generalization... Younger schoolchildren distinguish, first of all, catchy, vivid signs of objects. Most generalizations are about specific features. If we give children a number of objects belonging to different groups and propose to combine them according to common criteria, we will see that it is difficult for a younger student to generalize on his own. Without the help of an adult, while completing a task, he can combine words that are different in meaning into one group. Generalizations are fixed in concepts. Concepts are a set of essential properties and attributes of an object or phenomenon.

✎Concretization... This component of thinking is closely related to generalization. Throughout life, a child needs to learn to assimilate concepts, rules, laws. This can be done on the basis of considering individual objects or their parts, signs, diagrams, and most importantly, performing a number of operations with them. If the child knows only a part of the general properties, then his concretization will also be partial.

✏ Imagination. This is the ability of a person to create new images, relying on those already existing in his experience. The main direction in the development of the imagination of a younger student is the transition to a more correct and complete reflection of reality on the basis of the already existing life experience and knowledge gained in the course of mastering reality. It is characteristic of primary school age at the beginning that the images being recreated only approximately characterize the real object, they are poor in details. Further, the imagination develops and children already, building images, use a much larger number of signs and properties in them. A feature of the imagination of younger schoolchildren is its reliance on specific objects. Gradually, concrete examples are replaced by a word that helps the child create new images. By how deliberate, meaningful the creation of images is, we can divide imagination into voluntary and involuntary. It is in the elementary school age that involuntary spontaneity is most clearly manifested. It is difficult for children to be distracted from the images they have created earlier and conditioned by their life experience. This makes it difficult to create new images. New images in younger schoolchildren arise under the influence of little realized needs. Involuntary imagination is akin to uncontrollability. If a literary work or a colorful story awakens a strong imagination in a child, then, retelling what he heard or read, he, against his will, can come up with those details that were not in the work. Arbitrary imagination is an image specially created in accordance with the set goals. It needs to be developed and adults have to develop the imagination of a junior schoolchild from the image of an unclear, vague, "small" one, in which only a few signs are reflected, to a generalized, vivid image.

✏Attention. Attention itself is not a cognitive process. It is inherent in all of the above processes: perception, thinking, memory. Attention is focusing on a process or phenomenon. It accompanies all mental processes and is a necessary condition for the performance of almost any activity.

Attention can be voluntary or involuntary. In a younger student, the predominant type of attention is involuntary. Involuntary attention is quite "independent" and does not depend on the applied effort. Objects and phenomena that attract attention can be different. But everyone is united by brightness, surprise, novelty. Younger schoolchildren have not yet learned how to control their attention, and everything emotionally colored attracts them, as a magpie is attracted to shiny things. This is due to the visual-figurative nature of their mental activity. For example, if a child was sick and missed new material when he came to school, he will not understand the teacher's explanations, since they are based on the assimilation of the previous material. The child will be distracted, doing other things. For him, the teacher's explanations appear as something unclear and incomprehensible to him. Arbitrary attention. If a child sets a goal and makes an effort to achieve it, we are dealing with voluntary attention. In the process of mastering knowledge, skills and abilities, the child develops voluntary attention. The work on the development of voluntary attention proceeds from the goals that adults set for the child to the goals that the younger student sets on his own. Considering voluntary attention, we cannot but consider its properties. These include concentration of attention, its volume, stability, switching and distribution. Concentration is the ability to keep your attention on one object.

It is at the elementary school age that this property can be expressed very clearly, since it is common for a child to immerse himself in his own world, not noticing the real world for some time. The amount of attention is the number of objects, phenomena that are covered at the same time. For a younger student, the volume ranges from 2 to 4 objects. This is less than that of an adult, but quite enough for a child.

The stability of attention is still poorly developed in the younger schoolchild. He is easily distracted, "jumps" from one object to another. This is facilitated by the fact that in the younger schoolchildren the processes of arousal prevail over the processes of inhibition. A child cannot pay attention to one subject for a long time, he gets tired quickly. Distribution of attention is the ability to keep attention on two or more objects or phenomena. In the younger schoolchild, this property is not yet sufficiently developed. With age, the distribution develops, the experience of automatic skills appears, when one well-known phenomenon or activity requires an almost automatic skill, and the child's attention is switched to another object or phenomenon. And, finally, there is such a property as switching attention. It is the child's ability to move from one action to another. The success of the switch is influenced by the characteristics of the previous activity and the individual characteristics of the child. Some children easily move from one type of activity to another, others find it difficult, it is difficult for them to rebuild. Switching attention requires efforts on the part of the child, therefore, at primary school age, when the volitional potential is not yet sufficiently developed, it is difficult. But with age, with the acquisition of new experience, switching develops.

DEVELOPMENT OF MENTAL PROCESSES OF YOUNGER SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE PROCESS OF LEARNING

At primary school age, those basic human characteristics of cognitive processes (perception, attention, memory, imagination, thinking and speech), the need for which is associated with entering school, are consolidated and further developed. From "natural", according to L.S. Vygotsky, these processes by the end of primary school age should become "cultural", i.e. turn into higher mental functions associated with speech, arbitrary and mediated. This is facilitated by the main activities that a child of this age is mostly engaged in at school and at home: learning, communication, play and work. What are the most important changes that during the period of primary school age occur with perception, attention, memory, speech and thinking?

Development of speech. The need for communication determines the development of speech. By the time of admission to school, the vocabulary is from 3000 to 7000 words and consists of nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, numerals and conjunctive conjunctions. A child can freely explain with another person about any matter related to everyday life and falling within the scope of his interests. The child listens to the sound of the word and gives its assessment. At this age, the child understands well enough which words are customary to use, and which are so bad that it is a shame to pronounce them.

If the child attended kindergarten, then he should be taught the skills of mindful speech analysis. He can produce the sound composition of a word, dismember a word into its constituent sounds and establish the order of sounds in a word. The ability to analyze words contributes to the successful mastery of reading and writing. A child who enters a school is forced to move from his “own curriculum” of teaching speech to the curriculum offered by the school. He is able to communicate at the level of contextual speech. The retelling of the story he heard, his own story is available to the younger student.

In the conditions of a school lesson, work is underway on a word, a sentence, as well as on a coherent speech. All three of these lines develop in parallel. When working on the development of oral speech, much attention is paid to emotionality, correctness, expressiveness, clarity. Mastering oral speech, children discover that texts are different in structure and have stylistic differences in narration, description, reasoning, writing, essays, articles, etc. For written speech, its correctness is decisive: spelling and grammatical. The child masters writing together with the mastery of written speech. All this suggests that the child's speech develops very actively at primary school age.

Sensory development ... A child who comes to school not only distinguishes colors, shapes, sizes of objects and their position in space, but can correctly name the proposed colors and shapes of objects, correctly correlate objects in size. He can also draw the simplest shapes and paint them in a given color. It is very important that the child is able to establish the identity of objects to one or another standard. Standards are samples of the basic varieties of qualities and properties of objects developed by mankind. Thoroughly examining, feeling or listening, the child performs actions, traces the connection of the perceived object. In nature, there are an infinite number of colors, shapes, sounds. Humanity has gradually streamlined them, reducing them to systems of colors, shapes, sounds - sensory standards. It is important for schooling that the sensory development of the child is sufficiently high.

By school age, a normally developed child understands well that a picture or drawing is a reflection of reality. Therefore, he tries to correlate pictures and drawings with reality, to see what is depicted in them. The child already knows how to correctly evaluate a perspective image. Drawings and painting contribute to the development of the symbolic function of consciousness and artistic taste.

Perception junior schoolchildren are distinguished by their instability and disorganization, but at the same time by their sharpness and freshness, "contemplative curiosity." Younger schoolchildren tend to confuse numbers 9 and 6, soft and hard signs, capital letters I and Z. Students are interested in the life around them, which they observe with curiosity, trying to see in it something new and unusual, unknown to them. Small differentiation of perception, weakness of analysis during perception is compensated by the pronounced emotionality of perception. Teachers who know this feature of children's perception teach students to listen and look purposefully, pay great attention to the development of observation with elements of comparison. By the fourth grade, perception becomes more complex and deeper, it becomes more organized. Perceiving the studied objects, students use their analytical skills, differentiate them.

Thinking primary school students is undergoing a big change. The child begins to study at school with a concrete mindset. The child sees the outside of objects and phenomena. At the initial stage of training, the form, colors, sounds, sensations are familiar to him.

Under the influence of teaching, there is a gradual transition from the knowledge of the external side of phenomena to the knowledge of their essence, the reflection of essential properties and attributes in thinking, which will make it possible to make the first generalizations, the first conclusions, draw the first analogies, and build elementary inferences. On this basis, the child gradually begins to form scientific concepts. The scientific concept is one of the forms of reflection of the world in thinking, with the help of which the essence of phenomena, processes is cognized, their essential aspects and characteristics are generalized, and is extremely important for the formation of verbal-logical thinking.

Mastering the system of scientific concepts in the learning process makes it possible to talk about the development of the foundations of conceptual or theoretical thinking in younger schoolchildren. Theoretical thinking allows the student to solve problems, focusing not on external, visual signs and connections of objects, but on internal essential properties and relationships.

VV Davydov in the book "Types of generalization in teaching" (Moscow, 1972) gave a comparative description of empirical and theoretical thinking. He showed that the development of theoretical thinking requires a new logic of the content of educational processes, since theoretical generalization does not develop in the depths of the empirical.

By the end of the fourth grade, in the development of their own thinking, students reach a new qualitative level - they are able to understand cause-and-effect relationships. According to L.S. Vygotsky, the intellect of a student at school develops like no other time

Still, figurative thinking is the main type of thinking in primary school age. Of course, from the above, we see that a younger student can think logically, but it should be remembered that this age is sensitive to learning based on visualization.

Attention at primary school age, it becomes arbitrary, but for quite a long time, the involuntary attention of children remains strong and competitive. The volume and stability, switchability and concentration of voluntary attention to the fourth grade of school in children are almost the same as in adults. As for the switchability, it is even higher at this age than on average in adults. This is due to the youthfulness of the body and the mobility of processes in the central nervous system of the child. However, here the child's attention still retains some signs of "childishness". Attention in children reveals its most perfect features only when the object or phenomenon that directly attracted attention is especially interesting to the child.

Memory ... During school years, the development of memory continues. A.A. Smirnov (12) conducted a comparative study of memory in children of primary and secondary school age and came to the following conclusions:

From 6 to 14 years old, children actively develop mechanical memory for not logically connected units of information;

The older the younger student becomes, the less advantages he has of memorizing meaningful material over meaningless material. This, apparently, is due to the fact that the exercise of memory under the influence of intensive learning, based on memorization, leads to the simultaneous improvement of all types of memory in the child, and above all those that are relatively simple and not associated with complex mental work.

On the whole, the memory of children of primary school age is quite good, and this primarily concerns mechanical memory, which progresses rather quickly during the first four years of schooling. The indirect, logical memory is somewhat lagging behind in its development, since in most cases the child, being busy with learning, work, play and communication, completely dispenses with mechanical memory.

If, however, from the first years of study, younger students are specially taught mnemonic techniques, then this significantly increases the productivity of their logical memory.

Imagination... At this age, imagination continues to develop. The child can already create a variety of situations. Being formed in the game substitution of some objects by others, the imagination goes over to other types of activity. In the conditions of educational activity, special requirements are imposed on the imagination, which induce it to voluntary actions. The teacher in the lesson invites children to imagine a situation in which some transformations of objects, images, signs take place. These educational requirements stimulate the development of the imagination, but they need to be reinforced with special tools - otherwise the child will find it difficult to advance in the voluntary actions of the imagination. These can be real objects, diagrams, models, signs, graphic images, etc.

The most vivid imagination manifests itself in drawing and composing stories and fairy tales.

The tireless work of the imagination is the most important way for a child to understand and master the world around him, a way to go beyond the limits of personal practical experience, the most important psychological prerequisite for the development of creativity and a way of mastering the normality of social space.

Based on the above, the following conclusion can be drawn. Learning activity requires the development of higher mental functions - arbitrariness, productivity and stability of all cognitive processes: attention, memory, imagination. Attention, memory, imagination of a junior schoolchild are already acquiring independence - the child learns to master special actions that make it possible to focus on educational activities, to keep what he saw or heard in his memory, to imagine something that goes beyond the framework of what was previously perceived. The child's speech and thinking move to a new level. Speech becomes more correct, expressive, emotional, clear, coherent. From the dominance of visual-effective and elementary figurative thinking, from the pre-conceptual level of development and poor logical thinking, the student rises to verbal-logical thinking at the level of specific concepts. All this contributes to the level of intellectual development and allows you to solve a variety of educational and life tasks.

Perception

The rapid sensory development of a child in preschool age leads to the fact that the younger student has a sufficient level of development of perception: he has a high level of visual acuity, hearing, orientation to the shape and color of the object. The learning process makes new demands on its perception. In the process of perceiving educational information, students need arbitrariness and meaningfulness, they perceive various patterns (standards), in accordance with which they must act. Arbitrariness and meaningfulness of actions are closely interrelated and develop simultaneously. At first, the child is attracted by the object itself, and first of all by its outward bright signs. Children still cannot concentrate and carefully consider all the features of an object and highlight the main and essential in it. This feature is also manifested in the process of educational activity. Studying mathematics, students cannot analyze and correctly perceive the numbers 6 and 9, in the Russian alphabet - the letters E and 3, etc. The teacher's work should be constantly directed at teaching the student to analyze, compare the properties of objects, highlight the essential and express it in words. It is necessary to teach to focus on the subjects of educational activity, regardless of their external attractiveness. All this leads to the development of arbitrariness, meaningfulness, and at the same time to a different selectivity of perception: selectivity in content, and not in external attractiveness. By the end of grade 1, the student is able to perceive subjects in accordance with the needs and interests that arise in the learning process, and their past experience. The teacher continues to teach him the technique of perception, shows the techniques of examination or listening, the procedure for revealing properties.

All this stimulates the further development of perception, observation appears as a special activity, observation develops as a character trait.

The memory of a younger student is the primary psychological component of educational and cognitive activity. In addition, memory can be viewed as an independent mnemonic activity aimed specifically at memorization. At school, students systematically memorize a large volume of material, and then reproduce it. The younger student remembers more easily what is bright, unusual, what makes an emotional impression. But school life is such that from the very first days it requires the child to voluntarily memorize the material: this is the daily routine, and homework, and the rule passed in the lesson. Not owning mnemonic activity, the child strives for mechanical memorization, which is generally not a characteristic feature of his memory and causes enormous difficulties. This drawback is eliminated if the teacher teaches him rational memorization techniques. Researchers distinguish two directions in this work: one - on the formation of methods of meaningful memorization (dismemberment into semantic units, semantic grouping, semantic comparison, etc.), the other - on the formation of methods of reproduction, distributed in time, as well as methods of self-control over the results memorization.

The mnemonic activity of a younger student, like his teaching in general, is becoming more and more arbitrary and meaningful. An indicator of the meaningfulness of memorization is the student's mastery of techniques, methods of memorization.

The most important memorization technique is dividing the text into semantic parts, drawing up a plan. Numerous psychological studies emphasize that when memorizing, students in grades 1 and 2 find it difficult to break the text into semantic parts, they cannot isolate the essential, the main thing in each passage, and if they resort to division, then they only mechanically divide the memorized material in order to make it easier to memorize smaller pieces of text. It is especially difficult for them to divide the text into semantic parts from memory, and they do it better only when they directly perceive the text. Therefore, from grade 1, work on dismembering the text should begin from the moment when children orally convey the content of the picture, story. Drawing up a plan allows them to comprehend the sequence and relationship of the studied (this can be a plan for solving a complex arithmetic problem or a literary work), remember this logical sequence and reproduce accordingly.

In the primary grades, other methods are used to facilitate memorization, comparison and correlation. Usually what is remembered is correlated with something already well known, and individual parts, questions within the memorized are compared. First, these methods are used by students in the process of direct memorization, taking into account external aids (objects, pictures), and then internal (finding similarities between new and old material, drawing up a plan, etc.). It should also be noted that without special training, a junior schoolchild cannot use rational methods of memorization, since they all require the use of complex mental operations (analysis, synthesis, comparison), which he gradually masters in the learning process. The mastery of reproduction techniques by younger schoolchildren is characterized by its own characteristics.

Playback- a difficult activity for a junior schoolchild that requires setting a goal, including thinking processes, self-control.

At the very beginning of training, self-control in children is poorly developed and its improvement goes through several stages. At first, the student can only repeat the material many times while memorizing, then he tries to control himself by looking at the textbook, i.e. using recognition, then in the learning process the need for reproduction is formed. Research by psychologists shows that such a need arises first of all when memorizing poems, and by the third grade, the need for self-control develops in any memorization and the mental activity of students is improved: the educational material is processed in the process of thinking (generalized, systematized), which then allows younger students more to reproduce its content coherently. A number of studies emphasize the special role of delayed reproduction in the comprehension of educational material that is memorized by students. In the process of memorization and especially reproduction, voluntary memory develops intensively, and by the second-third grade, its productivity in children, in comparison with involuntary memory, sharply increases. However, a number of psychological studies show that in the future, both types of memory develop together and interconnected. This is due to the fact that the development of voluntary memorization and, accordingly, the ability to apply its techniques then helps the analysis of the content of the educational material and its better memorization. As can be seen from the above, memory processes are characterized by age characteristics, knowledge and consideration of which are necessary for the teacher to organize successful learning and mental development of students.

Attention

The process of mastering knowledge, skills and abilities requires constant and effective self-control of children, which is possible only if a sufficiently high level of voluntary attention is formed. As you know, a preschooler is dominated by involuntary attention, it also predominates in the early years of education among younger schoolchildren. That's why development arbitrary attention becomes a condition for the further successful educational activity of the student, and, consequently, a task of paramount importance for the teacher.

At the beginning of learning, as in preschool age, the attention of the student is attracted only by the external side of things. External impressions captivate students. However, this prevents them from penetrating into the essence of things (events, phenomena), and makes it difficult for them to control their activities. If the teacher is constantly concerned with guiding development arbitrary attention of younger students, then during their education in primary grades it is formed very intensively. This is facilitated by a clear organization of the child's actions using a model and also such actions that he can lead independently and at the same time constantly control himself. Such actions can be a specially organized check of mistakes made by him or other children, or the use of special external means in phonetic analysis. So gradually the younger student learns to be guided by an independently set goal, i.e. voluntary attention becomes the leading one. The developing volatility of attention also affects the development of other properties of attention, which are also still very imperfect in the first year of study.

So, the attention span of a younger student is less than that of an adult, and his ability to distribute attention is less developed. The inability to distribute attention is especially vivid when writing dictations, when you need to simultaneously listen, remember the rules, apply them and write. But already by the second grade, children show noticeable shifts in the improvement of this property, if the teacher organizes the educational work of students at home, in the classroom and their public affairs in such a way that they learn to control their activities and simultaneously monitor the implementation of several actions. At the beginning of training, great instability of attention is also manifested. Developing the stability of attention of primary schoolchildren, the teacher should remember that in grades 1 and 2, the stability of attention is higher when they perform external actions and lower when they perform mental ones. That is why methodologists recommend alternating mental activities and classes in drawing up diagrams, drawings, drawings. Imperfect in younger students is also such an important property of attention as switching. At the beginning of training, they have not yet formed educational skills and abilities, which prevents them from quickly moving from one type of study to another, however, improving the learning activity already by grade 2 leads to the formation in children of the ability to switch from one stage of the lesson to another, from one academic work to another. Along with the development of voluntary attention, involuntary attention also develops, which is now associated not with the brightness and external attractiveness of the object, but with the needs and interests of the child arising in the course of educational activity, i.e. with the development of their personality, when feelings, interests, motives and needs constantly determine the direction of his attention. So, the development of students' attention is associated with their mastery of educational activities and the development of their personality.

Imagination

In the process of educational activity, the student receives a lot of descriptive information, and this requires him to constantly recreate images, without which it is impossible to understand the educational material and assimilate it, i.e. recreating the imagination of a younger student from the very beginning of education is included in purposeful activity that contributes to his mental development.

For the development of the imagination of younger students, their ideas are of great importance. Therefore, the great work of the teacher in the classroom is important to accumulate the system of thematic representations of children. As a result of the constant efforts of the teacher in this direction, changes are taking place in the development of the imagination of the younger student: at first, the images of imagination in children are vague, unclear, but then they become more precise and definite; at first, only a few features are displayed in the image, and among them insignificant ones prevail, and by the 2nd - 3rd class the number of displayed features increases significantly, and among them essential ones prevail; the processing of images of accumulated ideas is initially insignificant, and by grade 3, when the student acquires much more knowledge, the images become more generalized and brighter; children can already change the storyline of the story, quite meaningfully introduce conventions: at the beginning of learning, a specific object is required for the appearance of an image (when reading and telling, for example, reliance on a picture), and then reliance on a word develops, since it is this that allows the child to create mentally a new image (writing an essay based on a teacher's story or read in a book).

With the development of the child's ability to control his mental activity, the imagination becomes an increasingly controllable process, and his images arise in line with the tasks that the content of educational activity sets before him. All of the above features create the basis for the development of the process of creative imagination, in which the special knowledge of students plays an important role. This knowledge forms the basis for the development of creative imagination and the process of creativity and in their subsequent age periods of life.

Thinking and speaking

The peculiarities of the mental activity of a younger student in the first two years of schooling are in many respects similar to the peculiarities of the thinking of a preschooler. The younger schoolchild has a clearly expressed concrete-figurative nature of thinking. So, when solving mental problems, children rely on real objects or their images. Conclusions and generalizations are made on the basis of certain facts. All this manifests itself in the assimilation of educational material. The learning process stimulates the rapid development of abstract thinking, especially in mathematics lessons, where the student moves from action with specific objects to mental operations with a number, the same takes place in Russian lessons when mastering a word that is not initially separated by him from the designated subject. but gradually it itself becomes the subject of special study.

In the development of thinking in primary schoolchildren, psychologists distinguish two main stages.

At the first stage (grades 1-2), their thinking is in many ways similar to the thinking of preschoolers: the analysis of educational material is carried out mainly in visually - effective and visually - figurative plan... Children judge objects and phenomena by their individual external signs, one-sidedly, superficially. Their inferences are based on visual prerequisites given in perception, and conclusions are drawn not on the basis of logical arguments, but by direct correlation of judgment with perceived information. Generalizations and concepts of this stage strongly depend on the external characteristics of objects and fix those properties that lie on the surface.

By the third grade, thinking passes into a qualitatively new, second stage, which requires the teacher to demonstrate the connections that exist between the individual elements of the assimilated information. By the 3rd grade, children master the genus-specific relationships between individual features of concepts, i.e. classification, an analytical and synthetic type of activity is formed, the action of modeling is mastered. This means that formal logical thinking begins to form.

In elementary school, much attention is paid to the formation of scientific concepts. Allocate subject concepts(knowledge of general and essential signs and properties of objects - birds, animals, fruits, furniture etc.) and concepts relationship(knowledge reflecting the connections and relationships of objective things and phenomena - value, evolution etc.).

The development of thinking largely depends on the level of development thinking processes... So, for example, the development of dialysis goes from practically effective to sensual and further to mental (from 1 to 3 grade). Moreover, the analysis starts out as partial and gradually becomes complex and systemic. Synthesis evolves from simple, summarizing to broader and more complex. Analysis for younger students is an easier process and develops faster than synthesis, although both processes are closely related (the deeper the analysis, the more complete the synthesis). Comparison in primary school age goes from unsystematic, focused on external signs, to planned, systematic. When comparing familiar objects, children more easily notice similarities, and when comparing new ones, differences.

It should be noted that younger students begin to become aware of their own thought processes and try to control them, although not always successfully.

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CHOO VO-ASSOCIATION "TULA UNIVERSITY (TIEI)"

Department: Psychology and Pedagogy

Academic discipline: Developmental Psychology and Developmental Psychology

COURSE WORK

"Development of cognitive processes in primary school age"

Completed by student: Ivanilova Yu.V.

Head: Tvorogova T.S.

Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychology and Pedagogy

Tula, 2016

Introduction

Conclusions from Chapter 1

Conclusions from Chapter 2

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The relevance of this study is due to the fact that primary school age is one of the main periods in a person's life, laying down a large array of transformations that affect the entire further life of an individual. And the development of cognitive processes in this period is especially important, since this is the age range of changes in microsocial conditions, the change of the family and preschool environment to the environment of elementary school, which has its own specific specifics. And on how adequately the process of development of cognitive processes in a given time period will take place, not only the qualitative nature of teaching at school will depend, but also all further ability for individual self-development.

Cognitive processes are a system of mental functions that provide reflection, cognition by the subject of the phenomena of the objective world, i.e. natural and social environment.

It should be noted that the age from 6-7 to 10-11 years is extremely important for the mental and social development of the child. First, his social status changes dramatically - he becomes a schoolboy, which leads to a restructuring of the entire system of the child's life relations. If in previous periods of age-related development play was the main type of child's activity, now purposeful cognitive activity comes to the fore in his life, in the process of which the child receives and processes huge amounts of information.

Secondly, significant changes are taking place in the mental sphere of the child. If for the initial stages of the age period under consideration, the dominance of visual-active thinking is characteristic, then in the future, abstract-logical thinking is formed in the child.

Under the influence of the activity performed by the child, the nature of the functioning of his memory changes. Voluntary memory becomes the main type of memory in the child, and with this the structure of mnemonic processes changes. No less significant changes occur in the development of the child's speech and other mental cognitive processes.

The question of the development of the cognitive processes of primary schoolchildren in the course of studying specific disciplines, including developmental psychology, remains insufficiently disclosed. This determined the choice of the topic of our work: "The development of cognitive processes in primary school age."

The object of this research is the cognitive sphere at primary school age.

The subject of the research is the features of the development of the leading cognitive processes of primary school age, namely memory and thinking.

The aim of the research is to study the features of the development of cognitive processes in primary school age.

In accordance with the goal, the following research objectives were identified:

· To study the specifics and development of attention and perception of younger students;

· To get acquainted with the characteristics and features of the development of memory and thinking of younger students;

· Pay attention to the characteristics and features of the development of imagination and speech of primary schoolchildren;

· To analyze the characteristics and features of the development of memory and thinking, as the leading cognitive processes in children of primary school age.

Research methods: theoretical analysis of psychological, pedagogical and methodological literature on the research topic, analysis of advanced psychological and pedagogical experience.

Chapter 1. Theoretical aspects of the development of cognitive activity of primary schoolchildren

1.1 Specificity and development of attention and perception of younger students

The process of human cognition is divided into a number of stages of changing incoming information - from perception to practical action.

Isolation in the cognitive processes of their individual types is largely conditional, but it helps in the practice of studying the psyche.

In modern psychology, it is customary to distinguish two groups of cognitive processes:

· Specific;

· Nonspecific.

Specific or cognitive proper are sensory processes (sensations, perceptions) and rational processes (concepts, judgments, etc.). On the basis of these processes, which are carried out with the help of the senses and the brain, the subject's knowledge about the world and about himself is formed.

Among the specific processes are usually considered: perception, sensation, thinking.

Nonspecific or universal are processes such as memory, attention, imagination, speech. They are also called "cross-cutting", as they provide not only cognitive, but all other mental and behavioral processes. Universal processes provide not only cognitive activity, but also the subject-practical activity of each person, imparting to her originality, uniqueness.

Attention helps to select the most important information, ensures the selection of effective programs of action, and maintains constant monitoring of their implementation.

Memory allows a person to record the fact of interaction with the environment and save it in the form of experience, as well as use it in behavior.

Imagination helps to predict events of a more or less distant future on the basis of the accumulated information.

Speech is one of the types of communicative activity carried out in the form of linguistic communication.

At this point, we will focus on the characteristics and development of such cognitive processes as attention and perception of primary schoolchildren.

Educational activity in the primary grades stimulates, first of all, the development of mental processes of direct cognition of the surrounding world - attention and perception.

The age-related feature of the attention of younger schoolchildren is the comparative weakness of voluntary attention. Involuntary attention is much better developed at this age. Everything new and interesting naturally attracts the attention of students, without any effort on their part. Younger students may miss important points in the educational material and pay attention to unimportant ones only because they attract children with their interesting details.

The peculiarity of attention also includes its slight stability. First graders and partly second graders still do not know how to concentrate on work for a long time, their attention is easily distracted. As a result, children may not complete tasks on time, miss letters in a word and words in a sentence. Students in grade 3 may already have attention continuously throughout the lesson.

The younger schoolboy perceives the life around him with lively curiosity, which every day reveals something new to him. The most characteristic feature of perception is its low differentiation. Younger schoolchildren inaccurately and erroneously differentiate similar objects: they do not distinguish and mix letters and words similar in outline or pronunciation ("w" and "u", "set" and "substituted"), images of similar objects (pentagons and hexagons). This is due to the age-related weakness of in-depth, organized and purposeful analysis of perception.

Often, children highlight random details that an adult will not pay attention to, while the essential and important are not perceived. The perception of students in grades 1-2 is characterized by pronounced emotionality. Visual, bright, living things are perceived better, more distinctly than symbolic and schematic images.

The perception of students at the beginning of primary school age is closely related to the actions, with the practical activities of the child. Perceiving an object means doing something with it, for example, picking it up. And what is generally perceived is what meets the needs of the younger student, what is included directly in his activities, which the teacher specifically points out. Perception at a given level of mental development is not yet fully a special activity that has its own special cognitive goals. In the process of learning, perception is reorganized; it takes on the character of purposeful and controlled specific activity.

The teacher specially organizes the perception of younger students, teaches them to identify the essential signs and properties of objects and phenomena, indicates what should be paid attention to, teaches children to systematically and systematically analyze perceived objects. One of the most effective methods of organizing perception and education of observation is comparison. At the same time, perception becomes deeper, the number of errors decreases. It is important to periodically change the types of work of schoolchildren, to organize breaks for rest.

For a more holistic disclosure of the topic, we will consider the next point of our work: "The specificity and development of memory and thinking in primary schoolchildren."

1.2 Specificity and development of memory and thinking of primary schoolchildren

Memory is the ability to reproduce past experience, one of the main properties of the nervous system, which is expressed in the ability to store information for a long time and repeatedly introduce it into the sphere of consciousness and behavior. The processes of memorization, preservation and reproduction are distinguished, including recognition, recollection, and actually recollection. Distinguish between voluntary and involuntary memory, direct and mediated, short-term and long-term. Special types of memory: motor (memory-habit), emotional or affective (memory of "feelings"), figurative and verbal-logical.

The impressions that a person receives about the world around them leave a certain mark, are preserved, fixed, and, if necessary and possible, are reproduced. These processes are called memory.

The essence of the process. Memory can be defined as the ability to receive, store and reproduce life experience. Various instincts, innate and acquired mechanisms of behavior are nothing more than an imprinted, inherited or acquired experience in the process of individual life. Thanks to his memory, its perfection, man stood out from the animal kingdom and reached the heights at which he is now. And further progress of mankind is unthinkable without constant improvement of this function.

Classification:

By storage time, memory is subdivided:

· Instantaneous (0.1 - 0.5 s) - keeping an accurate and complete picture of the information just perceived by the senses (memory - image);

· Short-term (up to 20 s) - is a way of storing information for a short period of time. It retains the most essential elements of the image. From instant memory, only that information that attracts increased attention gets into it;

· Operational (up to several days) - storage of information for a certain, for an earlier set period. The storage period of information in this memory is determined by the task facing the person.

· Long-term (unlimited) - storage of information in an unlimited period of time. This information can be reproduced any number of times (temporarily) without loss;

· Genetic - information that is stored in the genotype is transmitted and reproduced by inheritance.

· Visual - preservation and reproduction of visual images.

· Auditory - memorization and accurate reproduction of various sounds.

· Motor - memorizing and preserving, and, if necessary, reproducing with sufficient accuracy a variety of complex movements.

· Emotional - memory for experiences. The fact that a person causes emotional experiences is remembered by him without much difficulty and for a longer period.

· Tactile, olfactory, gustatory, etc. - satisfaction of biological needs or needs related to the safety and self-preservation of the body.

By the nature of the participation of will in the processes:

· Involuntary memorization - occurs automatically and without much effort on the part of a person, without setting a special mnemonic task for him.

· Voluntary memorization - the process of memorization and reproduction requires volitional efforts. Subject to the presence of a mnemonic task.

· Development of the process. The development of memory as a whole depends on a person, on the scope of his activity directly depends on the normal functioning and development of other "cognitive" processes. Working on this or that process, a person without hesitation develops and trains memory.

Thinking is:

This is the highest cognitive process;

It is a movement of ideas that reveals the essence of things. Its result is not an image, but some thought, idea, (a concept is a generalized reflection of a class of objects in their most general and essential features);

This is a special kind of theoretical and practical activity, which presupposes a system of actions and operations included in it of an orientation - research, transformative and cognitive nature.

Thinking is the highest level of human knowledge. It allows you to gain knowledge about such objects, properties and relationships of the real world that cannot be directly perceived at the sensory level of cognition. The forms and laws of thinking are studied by logic, the mechanisms of its course by psychology and neurophysiology. Cybernetics analyzes thinking in connection with the tasks of modeling some mental functions.

The essence of the process. Thinking is a product of new knowledge, an active form of creative reflection and transformation of reality by a person. Thinking generates such a result, which does not exist either in reality itself or in the subject at a given moment. The difference between thinking and other psychological processes is also that it is almost always associated with the presence of a problem situation, a task that needs to be solved, and an active change in the conditions in which this task is set.

Thinking, unlike other processes, is carried out in accordance with a certain logic.

Classification:

· Theoretical conceptual thinking;

· Theoretical figurative thinking;

· Visual - figurative thinking.

Theoretical conceptual thinking is such thinking, using which a person, in the process of solving a problem, turns to concepts, performs actions in his mind, without directly dealing with the experience obtained with the help of the senses. Theoretical conceptual thinking is characteristic of scientific theoretical research.

Theoretical figurative thinking - differs in that the material that a person uses here to solve a problem is not concepts, judgments or inferences, but images. They are either directly retrieved from memory or creatively recreated by the imagination. Such thinking is used by workers in literature, art in general, people of creative labor who deal with images.

Visual - figurative - this thought process is directly related to the perception of a thinking person of the surrounding reality and without a person can not be accomplished. Thinking visually figuratively, a person is tied to reality, and the images necessary for thinking themselves are presented in his short-term and operative memory (in contrast to this, images for theoretical figurative thinking are extracted from long-term memory and then transformed).

Visual - real - this process of thinking is a practical transformed activity carried out by a person with real objects. This type of thinking is widely represented among people engaged in real production labor, the result of which is the creation of a particular material product.

Process development. The theoretical conceptual and the theoretical figurative in reality both coexist. They complement each other. Theoretical conceptual thinking provides an accurate generalization of reality, and theoretical figurative thinking allows one to obtain a specific subjective perception of it. Without this or that type of thinking, our perception of reality would not be as deep and versatile, accurate and rich in various shades as it really is.

The difference between theoretical and practical ways of thinking is that "they relate to practice in different ways." The work of practical thinking is mainly aimed at solving particular specific problems, while the work of theoretical thinking is mainly aimed at finding general patterns.

Thinking rises to a higher level along with the development of his scientific outlook, sense of responsibility, volitional qualities, professional orientation of the individual, the accumulation of experience in working in conditions as close as possible to real - labor.

1.3 Specificity and development of imagination and speech of primary schoolchildren

Imagination is a special form of the human psyche, which stands apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupies an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory.

Imagination - (fantasy), mental activity, consisting in the creation of representations and mental situations that have never been generally perceived by a person in reality. Distinguish between recreational imagination and creative imagination.

Representation is an image of a previously perceived object or phenomenon (memory representation, recollection), as well as an image created by a productive imagination.

The essence of the process. Until now, scientists are almost unknown about the mechanism of imagination. This form is characteristic only for humans and is strangely associated with the activity of the body. Through imagination, man creates and intelligently plans and manages his activities. Imagination is the basis of visual - figurative thinking, which allows a person to navigate in a situation and solve problems without the direct intervention of practical actions.

Imagination differs from perception in that its images do not always correspond to reality, they contain elements of fantasy, fiction.

Mental life is a non-stop movement of ideas.

In different periods of time one and the same idea can be in different areas of consciousness.

The classification is determined by four types:

· Active? arises of its own accord, by an effort of will;

· Passive? arises in a person spontaneously, in addition to will and desire;

· Productive? reality is consciously constructed by man (but at the same time it is creatively transformed in the image);

· Reproductive? reproduce reality as it is (elements of fantasy).

The view is shared by:

· On the functioning of the leading sense organ: visual, motor, etc.

Process development. The primary base for imagination is always reality - life. Imagining a person creates - an artist - paintings, a designer - constructions. By building up his potential base, a person embodies his imaginary "projects" in life. Imagination is closely related to such processes as memory, thinking, without interconnection with them, the process of implementing your idea is impossible.

For the successful development of completeness, correctness, clarity of presentation, interest in a specific type of activity is necessary. The idea of ​​an object is the stronger and brighter, the more often this object is the object of attention and human actions. Passive repetition of the perception of an object does not form an idea of ​​it. Educational films, filmstrips, video films are the means of forming visual, motor, and schematic representations of students.

One of the most important indicators of the level of culture of thinking, human intelligence, is his speech.

Speech is a type of human activity, the realization of thinking based on the use of language means (words, their combinations, sentences, etc.). Speech performs the functions of communication and communication, emotional self-expression and impact on other people.

Well-developed speech serves as one of the most important means of active human activity in modern society, and for the student, a means of successful schooling. Speech is a way of knowing reality. On the one hand, the richness of speech largely depends on the enrichment of the child with new ideas and concepts; on the other hand, a good command of the language, speech contributes to the knowledge of complex connections in nature and in the life of society. Children with well-developed speech always learn more successfully in various subjects. The following periods of human speech development can be distinguished:

· Infancy - up to 1 year - humming, babbling;

· Early age - from 1 year to 3 years - mastering the syllable and sound composition of a word, the simplest connections of words in a sentence; dialogical, situational speech;

· Preschool age - from 3 years to 6 - the appearance of monologue speech, contextual; the appearance of forms of inner speech;

Primary school age - from 6 to 10 years - awareness of forms of speech (sound composition of the word, vocabulary, grammatical structure), mastery of written speech, the concept of a literary language and norm, intensive development of a monologue;

· Middle school age - from 10 to 15 years - mastering the literary norm, functional styles of speech, the beginning of the formation of an individual style of speech;

· Senior school age - from 15 to 17 years - improving the culture of speech, mastering the professional features of the language, the formation of an individual style.

Let's consider the basic psychological theories explaining the process of speech formation. These include:

· Learning theory;

· Sensitive theory;

· Cognitive theory;

· Inner speech. ...

Let's consider each of them in more detail.

Learning theory. This theory claims that imitation and reinforcement are the main mechanisms for the formation and development of speech in humans. It is assumed that the child has an innate need and ability to imitate, including the sounds of human speech. Receiving positive emotional reinforcement, imitation leads to the rapid assimilation of first the sounds of human speech, then phonemes, morphemes, words, utterances, and the rules of their grammatical construction. Mastering speech, thus, comes down to teaching all its basic elements.

Sensitive theory of speech development. The author of the following theory of speech development is N. Chomsky. He argues that from birth in the human body and brain there are some specific inclinations for the assimilation of speech in its basic attributes. These inclinations ripen by about one year of age and open up opportunities for the accelerated development of speech from one year to three years. This age is called the sensitive age for speech formation.

Another popular theory of language acquisition is called cognitive. According to her, the development of speech depends on the inherent ability of a child from birth to perceive and intellectually process information. This, in particular, explains children's spontaneous word-creation. It is assumed that speech development depends on the development of thinking, and not vice versa (J. Piaget). It has been established - and this is one of the basic premises of this theory - that the first statements of babies usually refer to what they already understand. Children also usually talk about things that are interesting to them. Consequently, the child's motivation also affects the development of speech.

The theory of "inner speech". Thanks to the formulation and consolidation in the word, the thought does not disappear and does not fade away, barely having time to arise. It is firmly fixed in the speech formulation - oral or even written. Therefore, there is always the possibility, if necessary, to return to this thought again, to think it over even more deeply, to check it and in the course of reasoning to correlate it with other thoughts. The formulation of thoughts in the speech process is the most important condition for their formation. An important role in this process can be played by the so-called inner speech: when solving a problem, a person does not reason out loud, but to himself, as if talking only to himself.

Thus, speech serves as the most important means of studying the process of thinking; the level of speech development is also used as one of the most important criteria for the mental development of a student. Both the assimilation of material in various subjects and the general mental development of a student (as well as an adult) are judged by how he was able to present a particular topic in his speech - in a written essay, in a report, in a message, in retelling, finally, in the answer to the question.

Summarizing what has been said, we can conclude that the development of all cognitive processes of primary schoolchildren occupies a special place and is aimed at full knowledge of the surrounding reality by children of primary school age.

Conclusions from Chapter 1

This chapter described the theoretical aspects of the development of the cognitive activity of junior schoolchildren, thanks to which students should master the skills of reading, writing and counting, acquire a significant amount of knowledge in mathematics, Russian language, natural history, namely:

· The specificity and development of attention and perception of younger students;

· The specificity and development of memory and thinking of primary schoolchildren;

· The specificity and development of the imagination and speech of primary schoolchildren.

We have revealed such concepts as: attention, perception, memory, thinking, speech, etc. The role, features, functions and properties of these cognitive processes were described.

Thus, summarizing the above, we can conclude that due to the development of cognitive processes, the abilities for active, independent, creative activity of children of primary school age are formed.

In the period of primary school age, memory and thinking become the leading cognitive processes, therefore, we will consider them in more detail in the next chapter: "Characteristics of the peculiarities of the development of memory and thinking as the leading cognitive processes of primary school age."

Chapter 2. Characteristics of the peculiarities of the development of memory and thinking, as the leading cognitive processes of primary school age

2.1 Features of the development of memory in primary schoolchildren

Memory is one of the forms of reflection of the real world. At the same time, unlike perception, memory is a reflection of what acted on us earlier, what was previously for us the subject of our perception, thought, feeling, with which we have already dealt in our reality, in our actions and deeds. Memory serves as the basis for the accumulation and use of experience, the preservation of knowledge, which determines the possibility of a broader and deeper knowledge of reality, the possibility of foresight and creativity.

Memory is the most important cognitive function. It creates an opportunity for learning and development. Memory underlies the formation of speech, thinking, emotional reactions, motor skills, and creative processes.

The physiological basis of memory is the formation of temporary neural connections capable of being restored, actualized in the future under the influence of various stimuli.

The first attempts to study memory experimentally (in foreign psychology) were made by representatives of associative psychology: Ebbinghaus (1885, 1912), Muller together with Schumann (1893) and with Pilzeker (1900), and many others. etc. The main task of the research was general: the study of the conditions of formation, weakening, interaction, associations, based only on the contiguity in time and on the repetition of the connection between the individual elements of what needs to be remembered.

The largest amount of research in the field of memory has been carried out in recent years. Some examples of methods for learning memory are given in Appendix 1.

In Russian pre-revolutionary psychology, two scientists who worked in this field should be distinguished most of all - K.D. Ushinsky and I.M.Sechenov. In the post-revolutionary period, the problem of memory was actively studied by P.P. Blonsky, L.S. Vygotsky, A.N. Leontiev, A.A. Smirnov and others.

Memory is not something homogeneous: it contains a number of complex processes. These include:

· Memorization;

· preservation;

· Reproduction;

• recognition;

· Forgetting.

Let's consider each in more detail below.

Memorization is the consolidation of those images and impressions that arise under the influence of objects and phenomena of reality in the process of sensation and perception.

From the point of view of physiology, this is the process of formation and fixation of traces of arousal in the brain. Memorization is a necessary condition for an individual to acquire new knowledge, forms of behavior, it is always selective. In accordance with the goals of the activity, there is a distinction between involuntary and voluntary memorization.

Involuntary memorization is a product and condition for the implementation of cognitive and practical actions. At the same time, a person does not set goals to remember, does not expend volitional efforts.

Voluntary memorization is a product of special mnemonic actions. A person sets a goal for himself - to remember, i.e. spends volitional efforts.

Before school, the child is mainly busy with the game that interests him. At this time, the child remembers easily and quickly what is interesting to him. It is noticed that poems, stories, pictures, events that made a greater impression on them, aroused strong feelings, children remember, and what left them indifferent, they easily forget.

Without much effort, the material with which the child acts is remembered. Along with the brightness of the content, the mood of a person matters, i.e. his interests, desires, emotions, expectations.

The productivity of memorization increases if mental activity is included in the process of perception. This is a condition of success for schoolchildren. In P.I. Zinchenko, A.A. Smirnov showed that what the subjects memorized involuntarily in the process of active intellectual activity is stronger in memory than what was memorized voluntarily, but under normal conditions of performing a mnemonic task. Thus, mental work is a condition for lasting memorization.

Depending on the children's understanding of the memorized material, the following are distinguished:

· Meaningful (logical);

· Mechanical memorization.

The basis of the first is understanding, the basis of the second is mechanical repetition. With meaningful memorization, generalized connections arise that reflect the essential aspects and relationships; with mechanical - separate single connections, reflecting insignificant aspects.

Research Smirnova A.A., Zinchenko P.I. and others show that mechanical memorization in children, as in adults, is less effective than meaningful learning; it is more difficult to remember meaningless material in childhood. This is due to the fact that memorization without reflection requires great volitional efforts, and for children it is difficult.

Preservation is one of the traditionally distinguished components of the integral act of memory. Preservation is understood as the ability to retain material for a more or less long time, up to the moment of its actualization when remembering. Retention is closely related to forgetting. In fact, these are two sides of a single process (for example, in case of incomplete preservation, they speak of partial forgetting, and vice versa). Therefore, the facts, patterns and hypotheses used to characterize forgetting can rightfully be attributed to preservation.

There are two possible points of view on preservation. The first considers preservation as a rather passive process of storing a trace of impressions. The second treats preservation more broadly - as a complex, dynamic and active process, which includes, along with the storage itself, various operations for processing the material: its classification, systematization, generalization, and the like.

Forgetting is a process that leads to a loss of clarity and a decrease in the volume of material fixed in memory, the inability to reproduce, and in extreme cases even learn what was known from past experience.

As a rule, it is forgotten that which has not acquired or lost its vital significance for a person and in the future does not play a role in his activities.

Forgetting is especially intense during the first time after memorization. This pattern is general, although meaningful visual or verbal material is forgotten more slowly than, for example, the sequence of numbers or the meaninglessness of syllables. The presence of interest in the memorized material leads to a longer preservation of it. Forgetting is not reduced only to a quantitative decrease in the volume of memorized material, the main content of the material is most fully and firmly preserved; in this regard, the material stored in the memory acquires more and more generalized, schematic character over time.

The forgetting process depends on how children remember which techniques they use. Throughout the primary school age, students need their memorization work to be guided by the teacher, since they themselves still find it difficult to set specific, specific tasks for themselves: memorize precisely or memorize in order to convey in their own words, and so on. Often a student forgets what he learned for a long time and, it would seem, well, because:

· Students strive to memorize without preliminary comprehension of the material;

· Do not possess rational methods of memorization.

Reproduction is one of the memory processes in which thoughts, images, feelings, movements known from past experience are actualized. Unlike recognition, reproduction is carried out in the absence of objects that once caused the corresponding traces in memory.

Playback is different:

· Arbitrary;

· Involuntary.

In the first case, reproduction occurs in connection with a conscious mindset to actualize certain traces of memory. In case of involuntary, past impressions are recalled without a specific task for actualization.

At primary school age, reproduction presents great difficulties due to the fact that it requires the ability to set a goal, to activate thinking, students come to this gradually. Younger schoolchildren begin to use reproduction when memorizing.

Rubinstein discovered that the student cannot fully reproduce the memorized material immediately after perceiving words and events. The content perceived by him should, as it were, lie down for some time in his memory. Its reproduction at the beginning is very poor and incomplete, it gradually improves, the number of details recalled increases. This phenomenon is called reminiscence.

Reminiscence is a pause between capturing the material and its reproduction, the time of mastering, internal processing by the subject of the perceived material.

The easiest to reproduce is the recognition process. This is where random play closes in memory.

Memory development is very much about dialogue. Research has shown that younger students are much better at memorizing material in communication situations. For these children, the stage of working with adults is important. An adult not only carries out a controlling function, but also stimulates the child to pronounce the memorized out loud. Such pronunciation makes him more clearly formulate his thoughts: to include speech and motor memory in his work. Formed speech and motor skills make it easier to move to independent work and self-control.

Thus, we can conclude that memory in human life plays a huge role and occupies a special place in the system of cognitive processes, combining perception, thinking, speech into a single system aimed at cognizing the surrounding reality.

Also, memory processes are inextricably linked with all other processes of reflection of the real world, including with the processes of thinking, therefore, we will consider the item below: "Features of the development of thinking in primary schoolchildren."

2.2 Features of the development of thinking in younger students

Thinking is carried out according to the laws common to all people, at the same time, age and individual characteristics of a person are manifested in thinking. Thus, the psychologist A.A. Smirnov noted that the thinking of a junior schoolchild is "a generalized reflection of reality, carried out by means of words and mediated by the available knowledge, closely connected with the sensory cognition of the world."

In different age periods, any one of the mental processes acquires the leading importance for the general mental development of a person. So, in early childhood, the development of perception is of primary importance, in preschool age - memory.

What side of mental development ensures the further improvement of the child's psyche at primary school age? Psychological research shows that during this period the further development of thinking is of prime importance. Moreover, the thinking of a child of primary school age is at a critical stage of development. During this period, a transition is made from visual-figurative thinking, which is basic for a given age, to verbal-logical, conceptual thinking. These types of thinking are described by us in the paragraph: "Specificity and development of memory and thinking of primary schoolchildren."

The first feature of thinking is its mediated character. What a person cannot know directly, directly, he knows indirectly, indirectly: some properties through others, the unknown through the known. Thinking always relies on data from sensory experience - sensations, perceptions, representations - and on previously acquired theoretical knowledge. Indirect cognition is mediated cognition.

The second feature of thinking is its generalization. Generalization as cognition of the general and essential in objects of reality is possible because all the properties of these objects are related to each other. The general exists and manifests itself only in the particular, in the concrete. Some examples of methods for studying thinking are given in Appendix 2.

Thinking is a function of the brain, the result of its analytical and synthetic activity. It is ensured by the operation of both signaling systems with the leading role of the second signaling system.

Human mental activity is the solution of various mental tasks aimed at revealing the essence of something. A mental operation is one of the methods of mental activity, through which a person solves mental problems.

Thought operations are varied. These are analysis and synthesis, comparison, abstraction, concretization, generalization, classification.

Analysis is the mental decomposition of the whole into parts or mental separation from the whole of its sides, actions, relationships.

Synthesis is the process of thought inverse to analysis; it is the unification of parts, properties, actions, relations into one whole.

Comparison is the establishment of the similarities and differences between objects and phenomena. The comparison is based on analysis. The comparison can be one-sided, or incomplete, and many-sided, or more complete. Comparison, like analysis and synthesis, can be of different levels - superficial and deeper.

Abstraction is a process of mental distraction from certain features, sides of a specific one, in order to better understand it. Thanks to abstraction, a person was able to break away from the individual, concrete and rise to the highest level of cognition - scientific theoretical thinking.

Concretization is a process inverse to abstraction and inextricably linked with it. Concretization is the return of thought from the general and the abstract to the concrete in order to reveal the content.

Generalization is a selection in objects and phenomena of the general, which is expressed in the form of a concept, law, rule, formula, etc. ...

In psychological science, such forms of thinking are distinguished as:

· Concepts;

· Judgments;

· Inferences.

A concept is a reflection in the mind of a person of the general and essential properties of an object or phenomenon. A concept is a form of thinking that reflects the general and, moreover, essential properties of objects and phenomena. Each object, each phenomenon has many different properties, signs .. These properties, signs can be divided into two categories - essential and insignificant. The concept acts both as a form of thinking and as a special mental action. A special objective action is hidden behind each concept. Concepts can be:

· General and single;

· Concrete and abstract;

· Empirical and theoretical.

Judgment is the main form of thinking, in the process of which the connections between objects and phenomena of reality are affirmed or denied.

Judgments can be:

· True;

• false;

· General;

· Private;

· Single. ...

True judgments are objectively correct judgments. False judgments are judgments that do not correspond to objective reality. Judgments are general, particular and individual. In general judgments, something is affirmed (or denied) with respect to all objects of a given group, of a given class, for example: "All fish breathe with gills." In private judgments, the affirmation or denial no longer applies to all, but only to some subjects, for example: "Some students are excellent students." In isolated judgments - only one, for example: "This student has learned a lesson poorly."

Inference is the derivation of a new judgment from one or more judgments. Inference is a form of thinking in which a person, comparing and analyzing various judgments, deduces a new judgment from them.

Distinguish inference:

· Inductive;

· Deductive;

· Similarly.

An inductive inference is such a conclusion in which reasoning proceeds from isolated facts to a general conclusion.

Deductive is a conclusion in which reasoning is carried out in the reverse order of induction, i.e. from general facts to a single conclusion.

An analogy is a conclusion in which a conclusion is made on the basis of a partial similarity between phenomena, without sufficient research of all conditions.

Thus, summarizing the above, we can say that the thinking of a junior schoolchild is a generalized reflection of reality, carried out through the word and mediated by the available knowledge, closely related to the sensory cognition of the world.

Conclusions from Chapter 2

In this chapter, we examined:

· The specificity and development of memory in primary school age;

· The specificity and development of memory in primary school age.

Summarizing the above, we can conclude that the primary school age is usually characterized by a very realism of attitudes, the predominance of interest in specific facts of objective reality. The concrete facts are at the center of the child's intellectual interests. This affects the content and structure of his judgments.

junior school memory attention

Conclusion

Younger school age (from 6-7 to 9-10 years old) is determined by an important external circumstance in a child's life - entering school. A child who enters school automatically takes a completely new place in the system of human relations: he has constant responsibilities associated with educational activities. At this age, a significant achievement in the development of the child's personality is the predominance of the motive “I must” over the motive “I want”.

In this work, we tried to reveal the essence of the cognitive processes of primary school age, during which we revealed that at primary school age:

• further physical and psychophysiological development of the child takes place, providing the opportunity for systematic education at school;

· The child becomes a "public" subject and now has socially significant responsibilities, the implementation of which receives a public assessment;

• educational activity becomes the leading one;

• the emergence of voluntary behavior;

· There is a possibility of planning the results of action and reflection;

· There is an increase in the desire of children to achieve.

We also considered: the object - the cognitive sphere in primary school age and the subject of research - the features of the development of the leading cognitive processes of primary school age, namely memory and thinking.

The goal was achieved - to study the features of the development of cognitive processes in primary school age, and the tasks of the work: to study the specifics and development of attention and perception of primary schoolchildren; to get acquainted with the characteristics and features of the development of memory and thinking in primary schoolchildren, etc.

Thanks to the research methods used, we revealed such concepts as: attention, perception, memory, thinking, etc. The role, features, functions and properties of these cognitive processes were described.

Also, such concepts were disclosed:

· Memory, which includes: memorization, preservation, reproduction, recognition, etc .;

Thinking, which includes: analysis, synthesis, comparison, abstraction, concretization, etc.

We also considered: the history of occurrence, characteristics, types, functions and age characteristics of the development of memory and thinking in primary school age.

Thus, primary school age is the most responsible stage of school childhood. The full-fledged living of this age, its positive acquisitions are a necessary foundation on which the further development of the child is built as an active subject of knowledge and activity. The main task of adults in working with children of primary school age is to create optimal conditions for disclosing and realizing the capabilities of children, taking into account the individuality of each child.

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Annex 1

"Methods for studying memory"

1. Determining the type of memory

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