If a child is a little behind in development from others, parents begin to sound the alarm. However, they rarely pay attention to learning simple skills — how to eat with a spoon, how to use a toothbrush, how to put on socks. Many parents wait for their children to master all these activities themselves. Speech therapist Zhanna Naumenko explains how mastering everyday skills helps in physical and psychoverbal development.
“The child does not speak, does not play and lags behind in development, and he is almost 3 years old.” Psychologists, teachers often hear such words from parents. At the same time, it turns out that the child cannot use a spoon, a pot, does not try to dress himself. Parents often do not see the connection between the formation of hygiene skills in children and their development. The mother says that it is better to feed the child herself, as he does not eat well and will remain hungry. It is better to put on a diaper, as «it’s not time to use the potty yet.»
Recently, psychologists and teachers are increasingly drawing the attention of parents to the importance of cultural and hygienic skills in the development of children, in the proper organization of their lives during the period of adaptation to a children’s institution. According to the level of formation of these skills, one can judge the level of psychophysical development at an early age.
Early age is a special, most important period in the development of a child, a time when physical and mental development are very closely linked. The central activities of children during this period are object-practical and instrumental, from which play gradually develops by the age of three.
Subject-practical activity has an impact on the overall pace of development of the child
Subject-practical activity is based on the active interaction of an adult and a child with the involvement of objects. The adult is the mediator between the child and the world. In the process of interaction, the parent names objects, actions, signs and, thus, establishes a connection between the object and the sounding word. Subject-practical activity has an impact on the overall pace of development of the child and is initially manipulative in nature, subsequently improving.
A child from a very early age can pick up a spoon, but does not yet know what it is for, so he knocks it on other objects, tastes it, throws it, and performs other actions. Then he learns that the spoon is used for eating, but so far he cannot hold it correctly. Gradually takes the spoon correctly and eats with it. After all the stages are mastered, the transfer of actions from a particular situation to other similar ones becomes available to the child. In the future, a well-known object can be used in the gameplay.
The formation of the skill of self-dressing has a leading role in psychoverbal development. This process is reversed and begins with the child’s ability to remove clothes. In this case, the child is faced with a problem situation, he is uncomfortable. He tries first with the help of an adult, and then undresses on his own. Parents need to encourage independence. If they see that the child can cope with the task on his own, help should be reduced, used in cases of emergency.
You have to undress and dress every day, this process has the best effect on the development of fine motor skills and motor speech function. In addition, the presence of a problem situation encourages the baby to use such a means of communication as speech.
An important stage in development is potty training. Of course, the child must be ready for this both physically and mentally, so most children can be taught at 1,5–2 years. Parents need to be patient. The process should go gradually, without increased interest and excessive zeal. What is it about the child’s speech? With the correct course of accustoming to independent use of the potty, the child’s initial functions of self-control and self-regulation are better formed. For the development of speech, these functions are fundamental.
Instrumental actions (actions with the help of means: a spoon, a pot, a mug, a pencil) imply the use of an object for its intended purpose: they eat with a spoon, brush their teeth with a brush. These actions can be performed based on how well, under the guidance of an adult, the child has learned the properties of objects.
At the end of early childhood, the child in the main features develops a holistic attitude towards the world.
It has been proven that if children are limited in receiving information and processing it in accordance with age capabilities, the pace of their development is slower. The development of a child is possible only in joint activities with an adult. The content of this joint activity is the assimilation of socially developed ways of using objects that were revealed to the child and then became his world.
We highlight the main directions and rules in the formation of hygiene skills:
- sequential training in the possession of objects (spoon, cup, hat, pot);
- transfer to an imaginary (game) situation;
- systematic repetition, reinforcement;
- favorable emotional mood of parents;
- reading fiction to the child on the relevant topic;
- pronouncing poems with a child in a certain situation.
Children are not born with certain knowledge and skills. Only other people can make them human. You should not hope that someday later the child will learn to use a spoon, a pot, and will dress independently. All is well in due time. Each age period has its preferred acquisitions. Each acquisition provides a further course of development. It is at the end of early childhood that a child basically develops a holistic attitude towards the world and human ways of interacting with the world of people and objects.