Review of children's developmental techniques. Part 1

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Sooner or later, before every conscious young mother, the question arises: what method of early development is worthy of her child?

Some authors believe that physical development is more valuable than emotional or intellectual, others - on the contrary. Someone is sure that it is time to teach a child to read from birth, and someone - that there is no need to rush to school. And there is also an opinion that all this is just pumping money out of the parents …

The main thing that you should be guided by when choosing a development method is common sense and love for your baby.

To help you - an overview of the most popular early development techniques.

Maria Montessori Method

Today it is one of the most common methods of child development. Maria Montessori, an outstanding teacher and psychologist, called her method “a system of independent development of a child in a didactically prepared environment”.

Montessori child development is both discipline and freedom, serious work and exciting play. The system covers the age ranges 0-3 years old and 3-6 years old.

The main principle of the Montessori technique is: "Help me do it myself!" That is, an adult must understand what the child is concerned about at the moment, create a suitable environment for classes and gently teach how to use this environment.

The main provisions of the Montessori system:

• The child is active. The role of the adult directly in the action of learning is secondary. He is an assistant, not a mentor.
• The child is his own teacher. He has complete freedom of choice and action.
• Children teach children. Since the groups are attended by children of different ages, the older children “become” teachers, while learning to take care of others, and the younger ones are drawn to the older ones.
• Children make their own decisions.
• Classes are held in a specially prepared environment.
• The child needs to be interested, and he will develop himself.
• Full self-development as a result of freedom in actions, thinking, feelings.
• The child becomes himself when we follow the instructions of nature, and do not go against them.
• Respect for children - the absence of prohibitions, criticism and instructions.
• The child has the right to make mistakes and reach everything on his own.

As you can see, everything in this system pushes the baby towards self-development, self-education and self-education with the unobtrusive help of adults.

Zaitsev's technique

The creator of the methodology is the teacher N. A. Zaitsev promises that the child will learn to read in a very short time with the help of special cubes. What's the secret?

According to Zaitsev's methodology, teaching children to read occurs in warehouses, and not in letters or syllables

All "Zaitsev cubes" are different in color, size and ringing inside them. This helps the child to distinguish between vowels and consonants, soft and voiced.

One of the warehouses is written on each side of the cube. The child does not memorize the spelling of each letter, but immediately separate stores: ka-, ku-, ki-, ko-, ba-, bi-. And then the kid can easily fold the warehouses into words - ba-ba, ku-bi-ki.

Zaitsev argues that reading in different ways is much easier for a child than learning letters first, and then syllables and words. After all, children begin to speak in warehouses and hear the spoken speech also in warehouses.

According to the author, his methodology is based on the following principles:

1. From general to particular and from particular to general.
2. From the concrete-figurative through the visual-effective to the verbal-logical.
3. Providing visibility (not only from the word look) using various channels of perception.
4. Systemic material supply.
5. Algorithmization of educational activities.
6. Taking into account the physiology of the perception of educational information.
7. Protecting the health of students.

Nikitins technique

The Nikitins are parents of seven children and the authors of an unconventional child-rearing system. Their system is based on naturalness, work, closeness to nature and creativity.

The authors themselves describe their technique as follows:

“What we have developed can not be called a system, apparently. But the basic principles by which we are guided can be distinguished.

1. Light clothing and a sporty environment in the house: sports equipment entered everyday life from early childhood, became for them a kind of living environment along with furniture and other household items.
2. Freedom of creativity for children in the classroom. No special training, exercises, lessons. The guys do as much as they want, combining sports activities with all other activities.
3. Our parental indifference to what and how the kids succeed, our participation in their games, competitions, life itself.

All these principles were developed in the practice of life, in communication with children. We used them intuitively, unconsciously, pursuing only one goal: not to interfere with development, but to help him, and not to put pressure on the child in accordance with our own intentions, but to observe, compare and, focusing on the child's well-being and desire, create conditions for its further development”.

The most popular puzzle games of the Nikitins:

• Fold the pattern
• Fold square
• Unicub
• Dots
• Cubes for everyone
• Fractions
• Frames and inserts Montessori

Glen Doman's technique

Glen Doman is an American neurophysiologist who developed a method of accelerated physical and intellectual development of children from birth. Its main idea is this: "In any child there is a huge potential hidden, which can be developed, thereby providing him with unlimited opportunities in life."

The purpose of the Doman lessons is to acquaint the child with many accurate, clear and fascinating facts. For this, the facts must be strictly systematized into categories and sections of knowledge (bits).

Photographs or drawings are pasted on 30 by 30 cards, on the other side of which accurate information is written.

An example from Doman's book:

• SECTION: biology
• CATEGORY: Birds
• SET OF CARDS: common crow, robin, nightingale, finch, eagle, ostrich, chicken, sparrow, black grouse, heron, etc.

Doman also attaches great importance to early physical development, as it is associated with the baby's abilities and intelligence. From birth, the child is given freedom of movement and his innate reflexes are reinforced: he must walk, swim, grab, crawl.