One of the most fascinating aspects of early development is witnessing a child’s thinking abilities develop and grow. Thinking is an essential component of how kids learn about the world around them, from forming ideas and solving problems to comprehending fundamental ideas like colors and shapes.
Children’s brains are constantly processing new information as they develop. They begin enquiring, forming connections, and investigating alternative approaches to problems. This mental development process is essential to their overall growth and has a significant impact on their capacity to learn in the future.
Encouraging children’s cognitive development doesn’t have to be difficult. A child’s innate curiosity and problem-solving abilities can be fostered by parents and caregivers providing the correct atmosphere, support, and activities.
Age Group | Thinking Development |
Infants (0-2 years) | Begin to explore the world through senses and movement, developing object permanence and basic problem-solving skills. |
Toddlers (2-4 years) | Start to engage in symbolic play, improve memory, and understand simple cause-and-effect relationships. |
Preschoolers (4-6 years) | Begin to think more logically, but still struggle with abstract ideas and often view the world from their own perspective. |
School-age children (6-12 years) | Develop better reasoning, understand time and space concepts, and begin to think more flexibly and creatively. |
Adolescents (12+ years) | Can handle abstract thinking, engage in hypothetical reasoning, and consider multiple perspectives in problem-solving. |
- Psychological characteristics
- Stages
- Visual-effective
- Visual-figurative type
- Verbal-logical
- Creative
- Mental operations and their role
- Comparison
- Generalization
- Analysis
- Synthesis
- Classification
- How to develop?
- Video on the topic
- Development of logic and thinking 5-6 years old, lesson #1
- DEVELOPMENT OF LOGIC AND THINKING IN EARLY CHILDREN
- Exercise for the development of creative thinking: binomial.
- 30 ways to develop logic and thinking in children 7 – 12 years old.
Psychological characteristics
Similar to adults, children’s mental activity is influenced by a variety of psychological traits and features. This can be attributed, in the first place, to their age development and the progressive alteration of thought patterns that progressively overlap each other in accordance with the principle of increasing complexity.
Early on, a child’s thinking can be described as sensitive, meaning that it is open to events and stimuli from the outside world.
The primary functions of the baby’s consciousness during this time are the perception of external stimuli through hearing and touching. The evolving consciousness responds in a variety of ways depending on the information it has received and the emotions it has experienced. The youngster has empathy.
The capacity to observe and interact with objects in the environment develops most intensely between the ages of 1.5 and 2. By the time a child is 3–4 years old, their consciousness has developed to the point where they can observe and act, as well as generate their first concepts and mental images, which they can already demonstrate abstractly from the actual object of reality. Children start to acquire a verbal-logical understanding of information by the age of five.
Thus, the inclusion of the first educational programs in the games is a necessary condition for the development of thinking in preschoolers.
Among other forms of cognition, verbal-logical thinking emerges and becomes dominant in younger schoolchildren, ages 6-7. Its intensive development continues between the ages of 8 and 10. The need for a young person to have independent knowledge of the outside world starts to show around the age of 11 or 14. Adolescents at this age exhibit a higher degree of mental activity and much more complex thinking. Psychologists believe that this stage of a person’s personality development is unique.
Stages
Scholars in the domains of child psychology and pedagogy differentiate between multiple phases in the cognitive development of children.
Visual-effective
Between the ages of 1.5 and 2 years is when children’s consciousness begins to develop. Babies are currently using their hands to explore their surroundings. The child needs to touch everything, take things into his own hands, disassemble things, and even break and try on teeth in order to learn some information about the surroundings. As a result, objects are learned through observation of what will happen and through the use of varied actions carried out with them. We call this way of thinking "visual-effective."
Visual-figurative type
Visual-figurative thinking is an addition to the visual-effective type of comprehension that is developed between the ages of 3 and 4 years. These two ways of thinking coexist and enhance one another in a harmonious way.
Before school begins, a child actively develops the visual-figurative type of information awareness, which allows the child’s mind to start using images for thought and operation.
Drawing is a powerful illustration of this. Children start to draw on paper the mental images of the world that have formed around them. These images are straightforward and undeveloped—a house with a window and a triangular roof, for instance—but they are a reflection of visual-figurative thinking. It is crucial to place a strong emphasis on drawing, modeling, designing, and applique during this time. It should be mentioned that combinatorial thinking serves as both the connecting thread and the first step in the process of transferring from the visual-figurative to the verbal-logical type of consciousness.
Verbal-logical
The stage of development of another important type of thinking – verbal-logical – begins at the age of 5-7 years. It makes it possible not only to talk about the facts of reality, but also to analyze the environment and variably voice this analysis in verbal form. If a child at the age of 3-4 years ask what a dog is, he will answer that it is Tuzik, who lives in the yard. And at the age of 5-6 years will say that this is an animal that guards the house and loves to wag its tail when it is petted. The difference between the answers is obvious. In the latter case, the child demonstrates his ability to analyze information and logically express it with words. Such an operation of consciousness is the most important basis of the thought process, it allows development of preschool children and move up and forward in knowledge.
Creative
A person (in this case, a child) with creative thinking has the ability to create something entirely new and make some unconventional engineering decisions. And a child’s parents have a major influence on how these opportunities and skills are developed. There are no kids who wouldn’t be creative at all. Everyone possesses it, and parents who wish to help their kids develop similar skills should be aware of this and keep it in mind.
Every child possesses fantasy and imagination, which serve as the foundation for the growth of the creative process. All that matters is setting up the right environment and relentlessly pursuing the objective.
This can be aided by any kind of guidance (literary, artistic, dance, musical, etc.) as well as the considerate supervision of knowledgeable instructors. It is important to remember that a child’s capacity for creative thought is independent of both his intellectual capacity and his physical growth and development.
Mental operations and their role
The capacity to apply fundamental mental processes, such as comparison, generalization, analysis, synthesis, and classification, determines how children develop their ability to think.
Comparison
Children begin to learn how to compare objects at the age of two. By their indicators, observe the distinctions and resemblances. This operation is dependent on a range of object forms and colors, flavor and consistency, multiple purposes, and other factors.
The child gradually moves from comparing basic objects (like toys) to comparing sounds, material qualities, seasonal changes, and natural phenomena.
Generalization
By the ages of 6-7, such a mental operation is actively developing. When a child this age is asked to name an item, such as a jacket, skirt, pants, T-shirt, dress, or shorts, he will quickly respond with "clothing." It is unlikely that younger kids could accomplish this. Gaining proficiency in mental operations like generalization leads to an expansion of vocabulary and improved speech connectivity.
Analysis
Analytical thinking enables you to break down the topic into its constituent parts and pinpoint the unique characteristics and indicators that make the subject unique. For instance, a child ages 3 to 4 should already be able to name the components of wood, which include the trunk, branches, and leaves (needles). This indicates that the infant started to grasp basic object analysis.
Synthesis
Since the word "synthesis" refers to association, this operation may be in opposition to "analysis." A young child’s development of reading proficiency at the preschool age is a startling illustration of synthesis.
The infant studies letters and sounds first, then learns to combine them into words, words into sentences, sentences into the text. The synthesis process proceeds in this manner.
Classification
Through the process of classification, a child’s thinking discerns patterns and distinctions among surrounding objects, phenomena, and concepts. After identifying any shared characteristics, the child can think of them as a single group (class). For instance, a preschooler can readily organize his toys into groups consisting of similar-looking plastic, wood, metal, and soft items.
Children’s thinking development is an important process that begins at a young age and continues as they mature, shaped by their interactions, experiences, and environment. Through engaging in problem-solving exercises, imaginative play, and acquiring new knowledge, kids progressively enhance their capacity to comprehend, analyze, and interpret their surroundings. In order to foster critical thinking and cognitive development, parents and other caregivers can play a significant role by promoting curiosity, posing open-ended questions, and offering opportunities for exploration.
How to develop?
Nature itself imbues a child with the systematic process of thinking development from the moment of birth. Parents’ primary responsibility is to facilitate the process and create the ideal environment for it to happen. To guarantee that children’s thinking activity develops, educators and psychologists have created a variety of techniques, tools, and initiatives. It is crucial to employ strategies, tactics, and approaches appropriate for a given age and cognitive development stage.
It’s important to influence a baby’s tactile, visual, and auditory perception during infancy. Increase your communication with your child by reading him stories from fairy tales, singing, playing music, or turning on speakers.
As you name and demonstrate variously shaped and colored objects to him, allow him to touch them. Touching something will cause information about its characteristics to be deposited in the subconscious and encourage the emergence of the most basic type of mental activity.
When a child is between one and two years old, special attention should be given to the visual-effective thinking that is developing at this age. Right now, the most important thing is to let the baby explore his surroundings as much as possible. We have to remember to provide a safe environment for him. Every educational game available for this age group in children’s stores is excellent for helping kids develop their visual-effective thinking skills. They are intended to create a series of "actions" and "results of actions," which will eventually serve as the foundation for the growth of mathematical and logical ideas.
As your child enters the phase of developing visual-figurative comprehension, which is closely related to creative thinking, you should make an effort to support their fantasy and imagination.
Any games that involve creating images based on pre-existing concepts work well here. Allow the child to construct, model, draw, and so forth.
The phase that follows is when verbal-logical consciousness starts to develop. Here, it’s critical to support the child’s vocabulary and speech development. To help the child learn to reason on his own and come up with an answer, you should converse with him more and answer his questions. Allow him to speak while playing a game or engaging in an activity, like drawing, and have him verbally describe everything he sees and does.
It is crucial that the game be engaging, instructive, and meaningful because play is the cornerstone of a child’s development and the source of the majority of his desires and behaviors.
Only then will the infant’s time be spent not in vain but with the greatest possible benefit to his cognitive development.
Among the most significant responsibilities of parents and other caregivers is to support children’s cognitive development. You lay the groundwork for a thoughtful and inquiring mind by getting them involved in creative activities, posing open-ended questions, and supporting problem-solving.
Since every child learns differently, it’s critical to be understanding and encouraging of them as they progress. Providing an environment that is both positive and stimulating will boost their self-esteem and ability to think critically.
Recall that regular occurrences present excellent chances to foster their mental development. Exploration, dialogue, and easy games can all help them develop their cognitive abilities.