Today it is difficult to find a person who has not heard anything about the term “early child development.”

Many parents are interested in what it is?

What is early child development

The concept of “early development” refers to the active development of a child’s abilities from birth to 3-4 years of age. It is during this period that the baby’s intellectual abilities are formed.

Scientists have proven that by the age of 3, the development of brain cells is 70-80%, and by the age of seven – 90%. Is it worth missing out on the opportunity and not using the baby’s potential?

The brain’s ability to receive and remember information is the basis on which the child’s further intellectual development rests. Thinking, creativity, abilities develop after 3 years, but the foundation that was formed by this age is used. If it is missing, there is no point in teaching how to use it. (4)

The dream of parents is to reveal the child’s capabilities and raise him to be successful and self-confident. To do this, you need to create a developmental environment and work a little.

So, early development is:

• physical activity of the child without restrictions. To do this, you should allocate a special place in the house where he can exercise, developing dexterity, strength, and body control skills, while feeling more confident. The physical development of a child is directly related to the intellectual;
• an environment with fascinating subjects that the child studies and learns;
• various toys that provide a variety of visual, sound, and tactile sensations;
• regular conversations, joint topics for discussion, reading, drawing, modeling from plasticine, music, walks and much more;
• The mother’s initiative towards the child, her constant presence and attention. Receiving joy from joint creativity, the desire to make the child’s life bright, interesting and eventful.

Why is early development necessary? Goals and objectives

Research by scientists has proven that an unborn child is able to perceive, remember information and even make decisions. A child in the womb has an amazing range of feelings and living emotions (3), and Doctor of Psychological Sciences G.A. Uruntaeva noted that the senses of a newborn child function from the moment of birth (1).

The child’s body begins active activity from birth: sensory perception and tactile sensations develop. The newborn adapts to new living conditions, powerful adaptation mechanisms are activated. A child needs to know everything about the world into which he has come.

According to G.A. The Uruntai feature of development during this period is that vision and hearing are ahead of the development of the hands. Doman cards, Zaitsev cubes, Montessori frames, Seguin boards, manuals, games, toys, drawing, modeling, appliqué, games with water, sand - all this is necessary information in understanding the world around us.

The position of some mothers: “I didn’t do anything with the child, and nothing grows worse than others” is incomprehensible and incorrect. Yes, it is growing, but what will it be like for the child in the future, for example, at school, when the student will be faced with a colossal load of reading, counting, and writing? Will he be able to do everything and will it be easy for a completely unprepared child? The requirements in modern schools for the current generation are strict. Who will take care of their child’s tomorrow if not their own parents?

Remember, this is not only your baby’s future, but also yours. Today, it depends on parents how easily and harmoniously a little person will enter and adapt to the modern world.

So, the goal of early development is to expand the child’s information space, provide knowledge about the world around him, develop creativity and the ability to make decisions. The main task is to raise a successful and harmonious personality.

How to conduct classes, basic rules

Working with a child is simple and interesting. Children easily make contact, because they are curious about everything. The main thing is your desire, and there will always be time. Half an hour will fly by cheerfully and unnoticed, but everyone will benefit and the result will be full-fledged, early development.

A few basic rules must be followed:

• do not overload the child, you may discourage the desire to study;
• talk constantly, discuss everything, everywhere;
• do not force them to study if the child is not in the mood or is not healthy;
• develop a harmonious personality, study various subjects and diverse phenomena;
• simplify classes if the child finds it difficult;
• leave the right to choose time and activities to the child;
• diversify teaching aids: cards, games, books, cartoons, music;
• create a learning environment: let cards, cubes, books, toys be everywhere. Posters, calendars, photographs, paintings will decorate the walls;
• do not limit the child’s actions;
• allow your child, under adult supervision, to play with household items;
• turn on music: classics, fairy tales, children's songs;
• provide independence from an early age;
• encourage self-care skills;
• Praise your child for any success.

Thanks to classes, the child’s development will be earlier and more complete; most importantly, he will learn to acquire knowledge on his own.(2)

Don't be afraid to oversaturate your child's brain with information. At a certain stage, when it is overwhelmed with information, the brain switches off. There is never too much information; on the contrary, there is too little of it to fully develop a child. (4)

Masaru Ibuka, known as the founder of the engineering ideas of the Sony Corporation and the innovative theory of teaching children in the early stages of life, who has written a number of books, one of which is “After Three It’s Too Late,” talks about the presence of a need for early development in every child. The success of a future personality will directly depend on the satisfaction of this need. (4)

Remember, for a successful result, you should love the baby, respect and know - see his abilities and interests.

The choice of early development methodology and early development center is yours, because no one knows your child’s character, temperament and inclinations better than you.

Here is the definition of the term we are interested in, for example, given by Anna Rapoport: “Early development is the intensive development of a child’s abilities at an early age (from 0 to 2-3 years).” Why then are these words sometimes perceived so negatively? It is likely that the answer lies on the surface: the whole point is that the concept of “early development” involves numerous discrepancies and interpretations.

Early development is called as opposed to traditional. In European culture, to which we also belong, due to certain historical and social reasons, there is a tendency for children to learn rather late - around 7 years of age. Therefore, educational programs for children of primary (3–4 year old) and middle (4–5 year old) preschool age are perceived as early development.

Within the framework of developmental psychology development can be classified as premature, timely and late. What is precociousness? These are attempts to teach a child something that he is not able to understand and master due to insufficient physical development and lack of the necessary stock of knowledge. For example, teaching a newborn to sit. What is late development? This is the desire to form the knowledge and skills that should have already been formed by a certain age. For example, start learning to read after 7–7.5 years, when the productivity of any study sharply declines. Considering all of the above, every sensible person should find it attractive precisely timely, or normal, development - development that corresponds to the age indicators and individual characteristics of a particular child.

Another misunderstanding of the words “early development” is the identification of development and learning. Many people associate classical education in our education system with a school desk, “drilling in” of knowledge, cramming and similar things. This is what often motivates the harm of early development. Of course, no reasonable parent wishes such a fate for their child, especially starting from a very tender age. However, you should not confuse development and training. Early development is not only and not so much preparation for school. First of all, this is the development of basic mental functions: attention, imagination, memory, logical and spatial thinking, the ability to analyze and generalize. This is the creation of some kind of information environment that is interesting for the child, which will become a solid foundation for further successful learning.

Some practitioners working with preschoolers are categorically against such a definition as early development, considering it to distort the very essence of the concept of “development.”

It is unlikely that anyone will argue that all children, without exception, need timely development. However, modern science does not stand still, and what was considered correct 100 years ago ceases to be relevant today.

Pedagogy and physiology

As scientists have found, any child is born with enormous potential: a newborn has 300% more connections between nerve cells than an adult, and all of its sensory areas (responsible for information coming from the senses) and both hemispheres are connected to each other. This means that when you talk to a child, show him something, rock him, his senses act as a single whole. A few months after birth, those connections between nerve cells that have not had time to become stronger disappear, and most of the nerve cells that are left without connections with other neurons die. This is why it is so important to start developing a child as early as possible.

But is it really necessary to actively develop connections between nerve endings? The fact is that the brain of a little person contains a trillion cells, of which 100 billion are represented by neurons connected in a network - the foundation for the development of intelligence, creativity, emotions, consciousness and memory. Enhanced brain development occurs in the first six years of life, and what a young child ends up with is determined by these years.

For a child to live a full life, it is very important to develop all senses. This happens when they are exposed to various stimuli. In nature, everything is natural and sequential: first, some parts of the brain develop, which then stimulate the further development of others. Different periods in a baby’s life are directly related to the gradual formation of parts of the brain. Each such stage takes some time, more or less the same for all children. This feature of the human body was noticed at one time by Maria Montessori, who described sensitive periods, i.e. periods of special sensitivity of children to certain types of activities, methods of emotional response and behavior in general.

Having classified the sensitive periods by age, we get the following picture.

Starting from birth, there is a sensitive period for mastering self-control. In the first months of a baby’s life, when he cries and is picked up, the first neural connections (excitation - inhibition) are established and the beginnings of self-control are formed.

From 6 months to 3 years:

• sensitive period of language acquisition (appearance of words and sentences);
• sensitive period of love for order (reaches a peak at 3 years).

Sense of order- not a conscious, but a physiological need of the child. This means that the baby gets used to the established way of life and negatively perceives any changes in it. For example, he may refuse to eat if his chair is moved a little. In children under 1 year of age, the desire for order is expressed in crying when a stranger appears in the house.

From 1.5 years– sensitive period of perception of small objects (placing beads in a vase with a narrow neck).

About 2 le t – sensitive period of the ability to “join a group.”

First, the ability to play in dyads (pairs) is developed, and only closer to preschool age is communication in a peer group.

From 2 to 4 years– a sensitive period of repetition of geometric figures, which leads to better learning of mathematics (geometric shapes, sizes, divisions).

From 2 to 5 years– a sensitive period of control and honing of movements. The baby has a natural desire to walk along the line, it is easy to teach him to use the toilet and brush his teeth. All movements must be in the zone of the child’s practical life (spilling cereals and sand, pouring liquids, etc.).

From 2.5 years– sensitive period of vocabulary expansion.

From 2.5 to 6 years– sensitive period of receptivity to sensory impressions. The child develops the ability to refine all senses (for example, he very easily picks up small differences).

From 3 to 7 years– sensitive period of perception of music and rhythm. During this period, music and mathematics are perceived by the same part of the brain - the right hemisphere works. At the same time, intuition also develops.

From 3.5 to 4.5 years– sensitive period for tracing letters with a finger, preparation for writing.

From 4.5 to 5 years– a sensitive period of explosive activity in relation to writing.

Starting from the age of 5, the desire for order slowly declines.

From 5 to 6 years– sensitive period of transition from writing to reading.

From the age of 6, the left side of the brain turns on and causal consciousness arises.

From 6.5 to 7 years– a sensitive period that reveals a passion for grammar (playing with the order of words, arranging them, playing with parts of speech, etc.).

As you can see, sensitive periods do not alternate one another in a smooth sequence. At a certain age, the ground may be “prepared” for a child to learn several types of activities at once. If you miss this favorable moment, it will be much more difficult to catch up. According to M. Montessori, time from several days to weeks is allotted for individual sensitive periods, and it is impossible to compensate for it in the future.

Existing techniques

Let us dwell in more detail on specific early development methods, their main ideas and differences.

Education system American physiotherapist Glenn Doman is built on the principle of compensatory behavior of the body: by stimulating one of the sense organs, you can achieve a sharp increase in the activity of the brain as a whole. G. Doman dedicated his life to the treatment and rehabilitation of children with various brain injuries. For 15 years, working with seriously ill patients, he achieved amazing results and made a number of amazing discoveries: for example, in cases where the process of development and growth of the brain is stopped or slowed down, it turned out that it can be made to work by influencing it through any of the available channels obtaining information (vision, hearing, touch). Doman also found that the process of brain growth and development can be enhanced and accelerated.

Learning to read according to the Doman system is based on the child’s visual-figurative thinking and is built mainly on visual perception. The information necessary for assimilation is located on special cards with words that are written in very large font. The cards are presented to the child at a fast pace while the written words are spoken loudly. At the same time, children are taught to crawl, hang on parallel bars, and their motor activity is stimulated in various ways.

According to Doman, when a child turns 1 year old, in parallel with physical development, one must begin to develop mathematical, linguistic and other abilities. In particular, teaching mathematics according to G. Doman's method consists of showing the child cards with large red dots (five pieces each) and loudly calling their number. The use of dots instead of numbers is so that the child can feel the real quantity, and not an abstract symbol.

The early development methodology developed by Italian doctor Maria Montessori, there are two fundamental principles. The first is the interest of the child himself, and the second is an individual approach to him from an adult. Faced with the problem of raising and developing children with disabilities, Maria Montessori came to the conclusion that dementia is in a greater sense a pedagogical problem than a medical one, and it should be solved in kindergartens and schools.

At the beginning of his life, a child has a natural desire to move: he wants to explore space in order to become more familiar with the things around him and be able to handle them meaningfully.

M. Montessori suggests giving the child the opportunity to do this as early as 2.5–3 years old by arranging all kinds of cups, trays, sponges and brushes, sticks and cubes, beads and rods, cards and boxes in a certain sequence.

Equipment in size and convenience should be selected according to the strength and height of the child. And in order for the activity to be beneficial, the teacher (adult), seeing the child’s interest in certain materials, gives the child a short (2-3 minutes) lesson, during which he shows how to handle objects in order to achieve results.

The little researcher is asked to accept only one clear rule: take it, work - put it back in place. Maria Montessori generally believes that order is organic for a child, but he still does not know how to organize it on his own. The main task of an adult is to help children learn to concentrate on an activity that interests them. This is where the motto of Montessori education comes from: “Help me do it myself.” In educational games, specially selected materials are used - various insert frames, lacing, containers with loose fillers, toys with fasteners, etc. They are an integral part of the so-called pedagogical “preparatory environment”, which encourages the child to demonstrate the possibilities of his own development through amateur activities that correspond to his individuality.

Maria Montessori calls not to accelerate the development of children, but also not to miss the moment, discovering what is needed here and now. She selects exercises from practical life, with some of them coming from everyday household chores.

Along with individual exercises, the child participates in activities together with other children. This helps the baby become aware of group movements, such as walking along a line. Other group activities, such as conversations and role-playing, help children learn social behavior.

The main idea of ​​early development Cécile Bray-Loupan is that only parents are capable of sincere interest in the child and for the child they are the best teachers. Teaching methods for a child, as well as knowledge in general, are offered to him upon the emergence of interest, taking into account his natural inclinations. Combining the spiritual component - sincere interest in the baby, love for him and attention to his needs - with elements of Glenn Doman's methodology, S. Lupan tries in the best way to develop the child's intelligence and at the same time raise him as a psychologically healthy person, revealing the secrets of his own motherhood in the book "Believe in your child."

In his methodology, S. Lupan pays great attention to such things as teaching newborns to swim. She has compiled entire programs for teaching history, geography, art history and drawing, music and other areas of knowledge for children and preschoolers. Based on the recommendations of S. Lupan, any parent will be able to independently create a development program for their child.

Nikitin's technique is a system of educational games designed for children to play together with their parents. For the most part, these games are presented in the form of puzzles aimed at recognizing and completing images, i.e. for the development of logical and imaginative thinking.

Innovative teachers Boris and Lena Nikitin are the parents of seven children. They came up with and tested a new health improvement system on their children.

Their main invention - the so-called Nikitin games - have a high degree of variability, i.e. You can adjust them to suit yourself, your level, your interests. Each game is a set of problems that the child solves with the help of cubes, bricks, squares made of cardboard or plastic, parts from a construction set, etc.

Teaching reading according to N. Zaitsev’s method is built on the principle of warehouse reading. A warehouse is a pair of a consonant with a vowel, or a consonant with a hard or soft sign, or one letter. Using such warehouses, the child begins to form words. These are the warehouses that Zaitsev wrote on the faces of the cubes. He made the cubes different in color, size and the ringing sound they create. This helps children feel the difference between vowels and consonants, voiced and soft sounds.

The method of teaching mathematics proposed by the author is based on a system of tables that immerse the child in the world of numbers and clearly show him which number consists of what, what properties it has, and what actions can be performed with it.

How not to overdo it?

And yet, the explanation of the term “early development” as the development of a child up to 1 year seems to be closest to the truth.

The early development of a child under 1 year of age is a specially created environment filled with interesting and unusual objects for study by the senses. This is unlimited physical activity, supported by specially equipped corners, giving the baby the opportunity to better and earlier master his body and learn to feel safer. These are constant walks, conversations, reading books, friendly attention and caring support from parents. Early development is also the active position of the mother towards the child in the first years of life.

In terms of raising children, of course, there are many stereotypes, so I would also like to dwell on the dangers of misunderstanding early development. Such dangers are caused by erroneous beliefs, which we will dwell on in more detail.

All excesses in the understanding of early development can be conditionally attributed to two extreme positions: categorical rejection and fanatical enthusiasm. Let's start in order. So…

• Early development is a fashionable innovation that has many unexplored negative consequences. The ideas of early development are by no means new: some methods are more than 100 years old. Scientists from many countries (Japan, USA, Russia, Italy, Germany, France, etc.) are constantly studying this phenomenon. For example, in Italy it is M. Montessori, in the USA - G. Doman, in Japan - Masaru Ibuka, in Germany - Jaroslav Koch.

• Children who are involved in early development develop faster than their peers.

Such children develop faster than if they were not taught! Each individual child has his own developmental time frame. Of course, there are age norms, but the dynamics in the individual development of each child is determined by comparing him today with him, only yesterday! Parents do not need to evaluate their child’s “development” in relation to other children, much less draw such categorical parallels. It’s just that a child, whose developmental environment is thoughtfully and specially organized by adults, has much more opportunities for exploration, comparison and new experiences, which give impetus to “accelerated” development. Therefore, the pace of early development for these children is different.

• “We want (don’t want) to have a child prodigy.”

Most likely, this statement either hides the reluctance of parents to devote time to their child, or reflects the consequences of how they themselves were “terrorized” by their parents - with all sorts of unloved circles and sections. The goal of early development is not to “raise” geniuses.

The opposite point of view - the desire to raise a child prodigy at any cost - is obviously just as harmful to the harmonious development of a child. Because it reveals exorbitant parental ambitions and an attempt to self-realize at the expense of the baby, to embody in him what we ourselves once failed to achieve.

• Early development can overload a child's brain and lead to serious health problems later on.

The brain of a little fidget is equipped with a system of “fuses”: in a situation of emotional or information overload, it simply “switches off” - this is how the self-preservation instinct is triggered, which most of us, unfortunately, lose with age. If the baby begins to be capricious, distracted, yawning, or showing signs of impatience, this is a sure sign that it is time to rest.

• Early childhood education refers to regular education programs offered to children at an earlier age.

The basis of early development is stimulating the baby’s cognitive activity. This technique has nothing in common with classical training systems. A special educational environment is created around the child, filled with interesting objects to study, stimulating all senses. In such an environment, the baby has the opportunity to intensively study the world around him and satisfy his innate research interest. All learning is done through games. The main condition is the interest of the child himself.

• Early development “robs” a child of a carefree childhood.

This statement carries a misunderstanding of the main idea of ​​early development: everything should be unobtrusive, playful. No hammering, no violence! The child does only what he wants, what interests him. And the parents’ task is to expand his interests by offering a lot of exciting things and activities to choose from, and to catch the moment when the child becomes interested in one thing.

The desire to learn, to learn something new is necessary for a little man like air. This is his main goal in the first years of life. Without this innate ability, he will never become a full-fledged member of society. So why not support and develop a natural desire, why not give the baby the information that interests him? And let him take what is most important to him at the moment. If activities with a child are carried out without coercion in the form of an exciting game, if they bring joy and benefit to the child and parents, what kind of stolen childhood is that? The question “Why does he need this in principle?” disappears by itself.

In fact, the deeply philosophical opinion that the child “knows what and when he needs for normal development” results in indifference to the child and his needs, and even a formal attitude towards him on the part of the parents. Here I would like to remind you that without the timely help of an adult who creates the conditions necessary for the child’s development, the child’s intellectual and psycho-emotional level may remain very low.

• Almost all early development methods are very labor-intensive and require parents to spend considerable time studying them and producing teaching materials.

The most difficult problem that does not have a single solution is truly the problem of time. However, not everything is so simple, and its solution largely depends on the ability of adults to organize their time. Spend half an hour, not an hour and a half, preparing dinner, and devote a free hour to communicating with the baby. Invite your grandmother or housekeeper to clean the house, and in the free time, glue and write the necessary materials and games. If you have the desire, you will find the time!

Development Rules

Before you decide on the development system you need, it’s worth remembering a few simple rules:

Explore those early development techniques that seem interesting to you. Consult your pediatrician or early childhood development specialists.

Collect information from different sources and try to comprehend it critically, double-checking the reliability of the proposed facts. If you decide to send your child to a preschool that specializes in early development, find out its reputation and rating in informal forums in your city.

Don't overload your child by chasing results! You should also not rush from one extreme to the other, dramatically changing the baby’s lifestyle. The main task of early development is a healthy, harmonious and happy childhood.

Try to ensure that child development activities do not contradict, but complement each other. You should also not rush from one extreme to the other, dramatically changing the baby’s lifestyle.

Introduce any games and activities according to the principle “from very simple to simple, from simple to more complex, and then to very complex.” Be sure to consider the child’s level of interest and joy.

Always praise your child (for interest, for effort, etc.), even if he doesn’t succeed at something the first time.

" Child development

© Felix Bozhonka

After three months it is already too late (what is the “early development” of a child).

Many parents, discovering gaps (imaginary or real) in the development of their children, frantically rush to look for life-saving methods of teaching and upbringing, spending enormous efforts and resources on this. And in their situation this is probably correct. But how much more joyful and happier the process of upbringing and learning would be for all parties if, in the first months of a child’s life, parents adhered to simple and logical actions!

How can we determine the conditions for “early development” and its timing? According to the author, this is the following:

1. Hardening (water procedures) from birth to 2 months;
2. Sensory familiarization with the outside world from birth to 3 months;
3. Active learning of oral and familiarization with written language from birth.

Based on this, we will try to define the concept of “Early development”. “Early development” is a set of measures (as well as their results) aimed at the effective physical, emotional and intellectual development of a child from the first days of life to three months.

Physiologists have long proven that from the first days in the first months of life, a process of synaptic overproduction occurs in the child’s brain (the period of formation of a huge number of connections between brain cells), i.e. forming the basis for the development of memory and other functions of the child’s brain.

It is at this time that the foundations are laid for how many times a child will have to read a poem at school age, for example, to memorize: he will remember it the first time, or even twenty will not be enough. Accordingly, it will be easy for him to learn, or with great effort and time. Accordingly, will he enjoy the learning process or will it be a heavy burden.

After a period of synaptic overproduction, a period of gradual reduction of unclaimed connections begins. Excess connections that are not loaded with information from the environment will disappear and be destroyed. Therefore, in order to maintain synaptic contacts, it is necessary to consciously feed the newborn child with information from the environment.

A newborn baby is a very special creature. It contains the possibilities of all previous evolution on Earth (not just dad’s genes). A newborn in the first days and first weeks of life eagerly absorbs sensations and information coming from a new environment for him. He will never have such powerful new sensations in his life! This is not to be missed if you want to be happy parents and raise happy children!

It is possible to launch the mechanisms of effective assimilation, processing and reflection of information only from birth. This need of the body is formed at the cellular level. If you do not put effort into this from birth, then it will be quite difficult to form a natural interest in obtaining information and curiosity. A 2.5 month old child can listen with great pleasure and attention to everything you tell him and look at everything you show him for a very long time. Once he takes control of his body, he won't be able to listen to you for so long. Therefore, it is possible to effectively prepare its perception only in the first months of life. Don't miss out on your joy of being happy parents!

I really didn’t know what exactly was worth writing, since for the third year now I’ve been talking about early development every day (and not only talking), but I would like to approach this issue from different angles. Then Alla gave me direction - myths about early development. I’ve probably heard so many of them during this time that it would be enough for more than one article, but I’ll try to briefly describe those that I myself have encountered.

To begin with I would like to say, what is Early (RR) in my understanding. RR is the creation of a developmental environment for the child, free without interference in the form. This is not forcing the child to develop reading, counting, etc. skills, not in the traditional sense of the word, at the desk with textbooks in a dry and uninteresting form.

If the mother plays with the child, shows him pictures, reads books. He will begin to develop, and if you add to this set a few elements from different RR techniques suitable specifically for this baby, then he will develop even faster, but he will not even understand that they were working with him, since at that time he was playing with mom in an exciting game. This can be called early m, although I really liked Inna’s (author of the blog “Notes of an Optimist”) definition that it not early, but “timely”.

So, what myths about early development did I have to dispel while working with my child?

Or you don’t have to buy them, you can just take an unnecessary cardboard box and colored paper and make your own squares. Involve your child, and here you have a creative activity with a useful result and process.

I made more than half of the manuals for my daughter from seemingly unnecessary material that I could have thrown away and been left without another educational resource. You decide.

Each mother chooses for herself what, in her opinion, is best for her child: early, appropriate for the child’s age, or the absence of any activities aimed at the baby.

So I wish everyone good luck in their chosen path!

What is this? Why and why is it early? Is it necessary? Is it worth depriving a child of his childhood? And so on... A lot of questions, disputes and objections arise. Let's try to figure out what it is and why it is needed.

Each child is individual. He develops at his own pace, masters his own capabilities gradually, step by step... Each baby develops one or another function in its own way. You don't need to prove this to anyone. But, undoubtedly, there are also age-related norms: how and when a child should begin to sit, stand, walk, run, draw, read, write... All these frameworks show teachers and parents, no later than what time this or that function should develop How long will this continue to be the norm? If a particular function is not formed by the required age, it is customary to speak of developmental delay. This usually happens when the baby is seriously ill or when he does not receive enough attention from adults, when no one does anything with the baby. Well, if you don’t just play and read, but use any of the well-known early development methods, teach the child something (naturally, through play, but without sitting him at a desk), then the baby begins to develop even faster and more intensely. His speech is strikingly different from the speech of his peers (and from his speech most recently). He begins to amaze his parents with his intelligence, memory, ingenuity, and creative streak.

Many authors (Doman, Suzuki, Lupan, Zaitsev, Nikitins, Tropp) insist that such development is not early, but just timely, that traditional pedagogical science, based on the experience of past centuries, lags behind modern methods. That human potential is much richer than was previously believed. The only thing is that classical teachers lag behind innovators in terms of the start of education and children begin to learn just at the period when brain growth is already complete (about 7 years) . In this case, the child really cannot handle the workload that is offered to him at school. He has difficulty learning to count and read, and he has a hard time mastering writing. In the future, this leads to difficulties in all school disciplines.

Based on this, we can give a second definition to the term “early development” - intensive development of a child’s abilities at an early age (from 0 to 2-3 years). Naturally, at this age this is completely incompatible with traditional, “kindergarten-school” methods of teaching.

This is something completely different. This is a specially created environment in which the baby lives, filled with interesting and unusual objects for looking at and studying with all other senses. These are a wide variety of toys (from the simplest materials at hand) that provide a lot of tactile, visual, sound, and olfactory sensations. This is unlimited physical activity, “reinforced” by specially equipped corners in the baby’s room, giving him the opportunity to better and earlier master his body, study it well, be more dexterous, stronger, stronger, and feel safer. These are games made specifically for him by his parents, based on his interests and age capabilities (which is quite difficult to find on sale). These are books written for him in large, clear letters, with large pictures, with pages that even the most a little toddler. These are cubes with letters (or, even better, with warehouses), which the baby simply plays with his mother. These are constant walks, excursions, conversations, reading books and much, much more. Early development is the active position of the mother towards the child in the first years of life. This is a continuous process, it is painstaking work that requires constant “involvement” in the child’s life, constant creative tension.

Early development is the path to mutual understanding with your child. Early development is the desire of parents to fill gray everyday life with the joy of learning and joint creativity. This is an understanding of how fleeting and unique the time of preschool childhood is and how important it is for the child to live it fully and colorfully. Now let's look at what you should consider before starting classes with your baby.

The most important thing is not to set yourself the goal of raising a prodigy, a genius. Chasing results can overload a child. And, demonstrating these results to others can spoil the baby’s character. Secondly, there is no need to rush from one fashionable hobby to another. Young children are conservative; they quickly get used to one way of life or another. And changing it is always a minor injury. And if you often change your views on the development and upbringing of your child, you can even cause damage to his psyche. When choosing one or another method of teaching, be critical. Don't take everything blindly and without looking back. In any technique, there may be something that suits you and your baby, and something that is not quite suitable. Don't be afraid of your unprofessionalism. Only you can know exactly what is good for your child and what is not.

So, you have chosen which of the directions or methods you like best. It could be one thing or a combination of two or three similar methods. After this, try not to change your pedagogical views. When teaching your child, try to use a limited range of teaching aids. Do not buy more and more educational games and materials. It is better to make the most of one thing (or several), from all sides, than to develop a child with several dozen games and aids. He will not be able to really master any game, but will only get confused.

Show creativity, come up with new tasks for familiar games. Introduce all games and activities according to the principle “from very simple to simple, from simple to complex, and then to very complex.” If your child can't cope with something, simplify the task as much as possible, even if it doesn't follow the instructions. Do all the tasks together first, and then let him try on his own. Don’t worry, if something doesn’t work out for you at all, put off this or that activity or game. After a while you will try again. After all, you are not chasing a record, but communicating with the child, helping him understand the wisdom of adult life, mastering his own mind and body.

Don’t set yourself any standards for time and number of classes per day. Firstly, such norms are difficult to comply with (due to various everyday and family circumstances). Without completing one or another planned exercise or without playing a game or activity, you will begin to blame yourself for not being able to provide your baby with full development. But this is not so. Because even a small amount of training is better than nothing. Practice as much as time allows. Secondly, your baby may be very, very interested in this or that activity. There is no need to stop it in order to carry out the next “event” on the list. Let him better express himself most fully in what interests him. Never involve a child in classes if he is sick or even just not feeling well or in a bad mood. This will bring him no benefit, but harm.

If you want to give your child knowledge about anything, provide him with as many ways as possible to obtain information, do not limit yourself to cards or some other fashionable hobby. Give it from different sides, from different points of view, cover one topic in games, posters, other aids, books, films. Try to talk more with your child, talk to him about everything in the world at home, in transport, on a walk - the speech of an adult is more important any methodological manual. The information that you give to a small child should be built on the basis of the principle “The child and his environment” and its boundaries should gradually expand depending on the age of the child. There is no need to grasp at a lot at once or at once at a very complex one. Do not give your child knowledge that will not be useful to him in the near future. Because while he needs them, he can simply forget them. And precious time can be spent studying and mastering what is needed now first of all. Don’t stock up on knowledge; live for today.

A child who is busy with something during the day should not be overloaded with watching TV. This is unnecessary information for him and a heavy load on the brain. He needs time and a calm environment to absorb and assimilate the acquired knowledge and skills. Help your child learn to acquire knowledge himself. Give him creative freedom in this process. Celebrate every success your child makes, even the slightest attempt to prove himself, especially if it is the first time. Don't go too deep in one area, such as reading, math, music or physical education, forgetting the others. Comprehensive development is much more important for a child than a record in one of the areas. I hope that these tips will help you make communication with your child interesting, rich, and useful for both of you. And most importantly, improve yourself. Let the child see that learning and learning is interesting and necessary for everyone.