Objectives, content and methods of sensory education for children of early preschool age. Kindergarten teachers, school teachers and educators

Maria Montessori believed that a child's intelligence and knowledge of the world always originate in the senses. Any thought is always preceded by a process of collecting information. This means that the more subtly all the analyzers work, the more chances a person has to solve the problem facing him.

In his book “The Absorbent Mind of the Child,” M. Montessori says that sensory development allows you to open up a whole new world for the baby, making more things and their properties visible, as if someone suddenly turned on the light in a dark room.

It is important to understand that what adults consider obvious, a child has yet to learn: a small stone is lighter than a large stone, but at the same time heavier than a feather, glass is smooth and cold to the touch, and an autumn leaf is warm and rough. A child's absorbent mind is wired for learning, but it is important to place the child in the right environment where he can put his natural curiosity to use.

For more information about Maria Montessori's approach, watch our webinar for parents:

History of Sensory Education in Montessori

Maria Montessori was not the first teacher to draw attention to the importance of developing children's senses. When developing her approach, she relied heavily on the work of the French physician and teacher Edouard Seguin, who at one time worked with children with special needs and created his own system of exercises for developing children’s perceptions and teaching them everyday skills. Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi in their works also paid attention to the role of the development of sensory organs in children's learning.

Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout movement and contemporary of Maria Montessori, said that to gain knowledge about the world, children need real experience of interacting with objects. This statement formed the basis of his theory of active learning. He highly valued Maria Montessori's pedagogical approach, noting that if teachers stop commanding and begin to more delicately reinforce a young child's natural need for new experiences, teachers can create a much more solid basis for subsequent learning and development. In his opinion, the idea of education as hard and exhausting work is hopelessly outdated.

Maria Montessori herself began her career working with special needs children who were deprived of adequate sensory stimulation: they had almost no toys, and their whole life was reduced to a series of basic caregiving activities. She was able to clearly prove that changing the living conditions of children significantly changes the level of their abilities. Today, the influence of the environment on a child’s development has been proven at the neurophysiological level. We recommend reading John Medin's book, Rules for Your Child's Brain Development, to become more familiar with this topic.

Maria Montessori created a system of sensory education based on many years of experience observing children and studying the works of outstanding teachers and doctors. Although she was not the first to discover the need for sensory experiences in child development, she was certainly the first educator who was able to draw public attention to this fact.

Active consultation for preschool teachers. Sensory education for preschoolers

Author: Pikalova Nadezhda Viktorovna, teacher of the first qualification category of the Municipal budgetary preschool educational institution “Kindergarten of a combined type No. 201”, Orenburg.

Active consultation for preschool teachers is one of the effective forms of cooperation between members of the teaching staff, which allows not only to remember the theoretical aspect of the issue being studied, but also to share with each other their experience on this issue, as well as to take part in practical activities.

Briefly, the meaning of conducting this kind of consultations and seminars can be formulated as follows: “When I listen, I learn, when I do, I remember.”

Active consultation for preschool teachers on the topic: “Sensory education of preschool children.”

Goal: to increase the level of competence of preschool teachers in the implementation of sensory education for preschool children.

Equipment: small plastic bottles, pebbles, beans, large pasta, cereals - semolina, rice, cotton wool, polystyrene foam, pieces of foil fabric, plastic bag, thick and thin paper of different colors, plastic, nut shells, watermelon seeds, pine cones, multi-colored woolen threads , buttons, glue, plasticine, etc.

Progress of the event:

Part 1 (theoretical) - Report on the topic: “What is sensory and why is it so important to develop it?”

The world enters human consciousness only through the door of the external sense organs. If it is closed, then he cannot enter it, cannot enter into communication with it. The world then does not exist for consciousness.

B. Preyer

Sensory (from Latin sensus, “perception”) is a category that describes the direct perception of sensations and external influences. In physiology, sensory is a function of the nervous system that involves the perception of external stimuli.

A child’s sensory development is a way of understanding the world around him, which is based on the work of the senses. Sensations give us an idea of the various properties of the environment and help us form holistic images of objects. Thus, visual perception involves distinguishing objects in the surrounding world by color, shape, and size. Skin perception includes tactile sensations (distinguishing objects by texture - smooth/rough, hard/soft), tactile sensations (determining the shape of an object by touch - flat/volume), temperature sensations, baric sensations (weight, heaviness).

Sensory development, aimed at the formation of a full perception of the surrounding reality, serves as the basis for knowledge of the world, the first stage of which is sensory experience. The success of mental, physical, and aesthetic education largely depends on the level of sensory development of children, i.e., on how perfectly the child hears, sees, and touches the environment.

The level of sensitivity to sensory stimuli varies significantly among us and it depends on three factors:

The first factor is congenital qualities: absolute pitch and heightened sense of smell are genetically inherited, as is the possibility of congenital anomalies - blindness, deafness, etc.

The second factor is the state of the sensory organs: they can be affected by injury or illness.

The third factor is the development of the senses and perceptions, both in the process of spontaneous cognition of the world and in the course of special training. For example, no one will doubt that a person who has tasted a variety of dishes from different national cuisines since childhood will have a much finer taste than someone who has only eaten porridge and pasta.

What are sensory standards?

What and how to teach a child? The first and main task is to provide the child with a wide variety of objects for examination and draw his attention to their properties. But this is not enough for the full development of perception. The child must learn to determine the relationship of the identified or considered properties of a given object to other properties or objects. There are special “measures” for this; the main efforts should be directed towards their development. These measurements are called “sensory standards.”

“Sensory standards” are generally accepted examples of the external properties of objects.

We adults possess sensory standards without thinking about them at all. A child can operate them with the same ease only by the age of five.

Sensory standards:

- Color standards - seven colors of the spectrum and their shades of lightness and saturation.

— Shape standards — geometric shapes; quantities - metric system of measures.

— Auditory standards are pitch relations, musical notes, phonemes of the native language.

— We divide tastes into sweet, salty, bitter and sour.

- Smells - heavy and light, sweet, bitter, fresh, etc.

Helping children master sensory standards is the main task of adults, teachers, and parents. After all, in order for the difference to be fixed in the child’s mind, it must be named, emphasized and repeatedly reminded of it.

The importance of sensory education is that it:

- is the basis for intellectual development;

— organizes the child’s chaotic ideas obtained during interaction with the outside world;

- develops observation skills;

- prepares for real life;

- has a positive effect on the aesthetic sense;

- is the basis for the development of imagination;

- develops attention;

- gives the child the opportunity to master new methods of subject-cognitive activity;

— ensures the assimilation of sensory standards;

— ensures the development of skills in educational activities;

- influences the expansion of the child’s vocabulary;

— affects the development of visual, auditory, motor, figurative and other types of memory.

In everyday life, a child encounters a variety of shapes and colors - these include his favorite toys and surrounding objects. He also sees works of art - paintings, sculptures, hears music; but if the assimilation of this knowledge occurs spontaneously, without the guidance of adults, it often turns out to be superficial. This is where sensory education comes to the rescue - a consistent, systematic introduction of children to the sensory culture of humanity.

Sensory education faces different challenges:

At an early age: accumulation of ideas about color, shape, size (it is important that these ideas are varied).

In middle preschool age:

— formation of sensory standards;

- teaching children how to examine objects;

— learning to group objects according to one or more characteristics;

- development of analytical perception in children - the ability to understand the combination of colors, dissect the shape of objects, and isolate individual quantities.

In older preschool age: distinguishing speech sounds and distinguishing the perception of the outline of letters (during the acquisition of literacy).

A low level of sensory development greatly reduces the child’s ability to successfully learn at school. The child’s sensory development must be given attention throughout preschool childhood. Once learned, the names of colors and the concepts of geometric shapes are forgotten without constant training and repetition.

How to introduce a child to the signs of objects?

It is best to do this according to the principle of the “three-step lesson” (Maria Montessori):

1. First, a new property is presented to the child (for example, an adult names and shows a red card).

2. Then the teacher offers various tasks to consolidate the concept being mastered (the game “Show the same color”).

3. The child’s independent naming of the mastered concept (the adult asks the question: “What color is this object?”).

For continuous sensory development, it is necessary to regularly reinforce knowledge with practical observations and exercises. You can repeat and consolidate what you have learned in your memory in a playful way.

Why else is sensory development important?

Maria Montessori believed that sensory development is closely related to aesthetic development. The more a person is able to perceive subtle differences in color shades and musical tones, exquisite aromas and tastes, the more inclined he is to perceive and enjoy the beauty of the world around him and the more developed his aesthetic sense. On the contrary, if the sensory experience is small, the sensations are not refined, rough and strong stimuli are needed that will allow you to receive satisfaction from perception - remember the bright, vulgar, flashy colors of billboards, off-scale decibels at concerts or in the movies.

Maria Montessori also noted the connection between sensory development and the development of imagination. After all, sophisticated sensory organs can highlight subtle properties and details of objects in the external world, which will serve as an excellent basis for creating an unusual image.

Part 2 (practical): “Do-it-yourself sensory toys.”

The team of teachers is divided into subgroups. Each subgroup receives several questions (questions are written on separate cards). Teachers within each group discuss issues, then there is an exchange of opinions. You are given 5 minutes to prepare your answers.

First level questions:

· what games and toys for the development of tactile sensitivity do your group have, how often do you use them at work?

· what games and toys for developing visual perception do your group have, how often do you use them at work?

· what games and toys for the development of auditory perception do your group have, how often do you use them at work?

· indicate the “cons” and “pros” of games for the development of taste perception?

· indicate the “cons” and “pros” of games for the development of the perception of smell (olfaction)?

Second level questions:

· what games that develop a child’s perception can be played outside?

· what games and toys that develop perception do the children in your group prefer to play?

· in your work do you prefer to use toys from the store or “homemade” ones, why?

· How do you think sensory toys and games impact children’s language development?

· indicate the toy that, in your opinion, has the maximum potential for developing a child’s perception?

The following items are laid out on the table in front of the teachers: small plastic bottles, pebbles, beans, large pasta, cereals - semolina, rice, cotton wool, polystyrene foam, pieces of fabric, foil, plastic bag, thick and thin paper of different colors, plastic, nut shells, watermelon seeds , cones, multi-colored woolen threads, buttons, glue, plasticine, etc.

Each group is asked to make two educational toys with their own hands - 10-15 minutes are allotted for this, then the teachers make a presentation (advertisement) for their toys and explain how they can be used in sensory education of children.

Then all the teachers express their opinion on which toy they consider the best. The group of teachers who complete it takes all the other toys as a prize to replenish their corner of sensory development in groups.

We recommend watching:

Long-term plan for educational work in a short-term group of children aged 4-5 years

Sensory education of children of primary preschool age in preschool educational institutions

Sensory education of preschoolers during games

Summary of a comprehensive lesson on familiarization with the outside world and development of speech “Wintering Birds” in the senior group of a preschool educational institution

Long-term plan for the development and management of role-playing games

Rules for organizing sensory education according to Montessori

Maria Montessori noticed that at a certain age, children's behavior and motivation are very similar. For example, in the first three years a child is especially sensitive to order. This childish “pedantry” is necessary for the child to create a stable image of this world. It can also be used to develop a child’s natural need for knowledge by creating tasks that are exciting for a certain age, which would help the child master the most important qualities of objects: color, size, shape, material.

As Maria Montessori herself admitted, the work of creating the sets was not easy: it was necessary to create material that would demonstrate properties in isolation, have pedagogical value, and at the same time be attractive to the child. This is how a set of Montessori sensory material appeared.

The main objectives of Montessori sensory exercises

Teach the baby to perceive, compare and classify sensory experiences of different modalities,
Expand the child’s sensory experience, teach him to notice even small differences, develop the child’s senses as much as possible,
Teach your child to use his own memory: “I remember what yellow is, and I can always imagine it in my head,”
Teach to critically evaluate any information and develop the habit of striving for maximum accuracy when gaining knowledge about the world,
Create a basis for the emergence of abstract thinking and imagination.

Let us explain with an example how sensory and abstract thinking are connected:

Let's say you've never seen an okapi. Now your task is to imagine this animal by description: it is a bay horse with the legs of a zebra and the head of a giraffe. Happened? If so, congratulations, your sensory development is on point, because for this exercise you need to have an understanding of the colors of horses, the coloring of a zebra and the body structure of a giraffe.

Any abstract idea is essentially a clever interweaving of various information from our real experience. That is why a child’s intelligence begins in early childhood and the ability to exercise all the senses over and over again.

What can you find in the sensory development area of the Montessori center?

Visual information

Shapes: sets of geometric shapes, as well as more complex shapes (for example, animal figures or plant leaves)
Volumetric figures: Pink Tower, Brown staircase, Red barbells, Montessori weight cylinders
Colors: sets of basic colors, card index of shades

Tactile information

Texture: palpable board, rough tablets, baskets with rags
Temperature: heat jugs, heat plates
Weight: weighing cylinders and plates

Stereognostics

Sorting small items, magic bag

Audio information

Volume: sound boxes, musical accompaniment of classes
Height: bells, sound cylinders, musical instruments

Taste and smell

Taste bottles, conversations during meals
Jars with scents

In addition to exercises with isolated sensory qualities, in a Montessori space you can always find sets that combine several qualities, such as color and shape:

Binomial cube
Trinomial cube
Constructive triangles
Montessori squares
Cylinders without handle

The study of sciences according to M. Montessori also begins with sensory education. Acquaintance with the basic qualities of objects of the natural and cultural world prepares the child for studying social sciences, biology, physics, chemistry and even mathematics:

Sets of leaves of different plants
Thematic puzzles
Maps and globe
Flags
Sets with natural materials
Reproductions of artists and nature photographs

Sensory development of preschool children

Sensory education of preschoolers is a targeted pedagogical influence that ensures the formation of mental cognition and the improvement of sensations and perceptions. The result of sensory education is the sensory development of the child.

The cognitive development of preschool children is inextricably linked with sensory development - the experience of sensory cognition, the processes of sensation and perception.

A child’s sensory development is the development of his perception and the formation of ideas about the external properties of objects: their shape, color, size, position in space, as well as smell, taste, etc. The importance of sensory development in early and preschool age can hardly be overestimated. It is this age that is most favorable for improving the functioning of the senses and accumulating ideas about the world around us.

The importance of sensory education is that it:

is the basis for intellectual development
organizes the child’s chaotic ideas obtained during interaction with the outside world;
develops observation skills;
prepares for real life;
has a positive effect on the aesthetic sense;
is the basis for the development of imagination;
develops attention;
gives the child the opportunity to master new methods of subject-cognitive activity;
ensures the assimilation of sensory standards;
ensures the development of skills in educational activities;
influences the expansion of the child’s vocabulary;
influences the development of visual, auditory, motor, figurative and other types of memory.

Objectives of sensory education:

to form a variety of examination activities in children;
to form in children knowledge of systems of sensory standards - generalized ideas about the properties, qualities and relationships of objects;
Encourage children to accurately designate with words research actions, properties of objects and materials;
develop in children the ability to apply survey actions and standards of properties of objects in independent activities.

Sensory standards are generally accepted examples of each type of properties and relationships of objects.

So, in the area of shape - these are geometric shapes (circle, square, triangle, etc., in the area of color - seven colors of the spectrum, white and black.

In the domestic system of sensory education, the traditional content is expanded and supplemented by including time orientation, development of speech and musical hearing. Time orientation assumes that the child acquires ideas about parts of the day, days of the week, months, year, and the fluidity of time (it cannot be stopped, returned, or accelerated; it does not depend on the person). Speech (phonemic) hearing is the ability to perceive speech sounds, differentiate and generalize them in words as meaningful units. The development of phonemic hearing is associated with mastery of sound pronunciation norms. Musical hearing is the ability to distinguish sounds by pitch, timbre, rhythmic pattern, and melody.

The main task of sensory education is to promptly teach a child to compare, generalize, synthesize, and develop thoughts about an object through close perception of it.

Domestic science identifies two main sensorimotor methods - examination and comparison.

A survey is a specially organized perception of a subject (object) with the aim of using its results in any practical activity.

Comparison is both a didactic method and at the same time a mental operation, through which similarities and differences between objects (objects) and phenomena are established. Comparison can be made by comparing objects or their parts, by superimposing objects on each other or by applying objects to each other, by feeling, by grouping by color, shape or other characteristics around standard samples, as well as by sequential inspection and description of the selected characteristics of an object, in a way carrying out planned actions.

Methods of sensory education of a child.

To solve the problems of sensory education, various methods are used.

Inspection of objects. For example: the apple is red, round, large, sweet, fragrant.
Method of sensory development of motivation survey. For example: “Why do you need to check the soil of plants with your finger before watering?” If the soil is dry, it needs to be watered; If the ground is hard, it needs to be loosened so that the ground can breathe and water can flow better.
A method of verbally denoting all the qualities of an object. The teacher, together with the children, pronounces all the properties of the object or item during the examination. For example, an apple: shape - round, color - yellow, taste - sweet, smell - fragrant, feel - smooth.
Comparison method. For example: we compare a square and a circle using the superposition method. Circle - round, roll, no corners. A square has angles, all sides are equal, the angles are the same.
Method of exercise, i.e. repeated repetition. For example, find all the objects that are round in shape, red in color and place them on a red mat

The main methods of educating children’s sensory culture are the joint activities of the teacher with children, the organization of developing practical and play situations that ensure the accumulation and generalization of sensory experience of cognition, children’s own practical activities with a variety of objects and materials, productive activities, especially drawing with paints, pencils, crayons, modeling, design, motor activities, reading fiction and looking at paintings, as well as experimentation and all types of games.

In the process of labor, a system of knowledge is formed about the properties of materials, tools and instruments (used by preschool children, methods of performing certain labor operations. The varied work of children in nature makes it possible for the child to form accurate ideas about the qualities, properties, features of natural phenomena, enrich methods of sensory examination.

The project method introduces children to the properties and qualities of various objects; in the process of experimentation, preschoolers also learn, with the help of their senses, the world around them in all the diversity of its properties.

Nature. From the age of one and a half, children can observe natural phenomena and play with natural materials. (Spring - bird watching, feeling the breeze, touching the first grass; summer - flowers - size, shape, color, walking barefoot on the sand, playing with sand; autumn - coloring autumn foliage, collecting pine cones, beautiful pebbles; winter - texture of snow, its properties)

Creative activity. Before you draw or sculpt something or make an applique, you need to examine the object and highlight its features. Rules for examining objects: Perception of the holistic appearance of an object; Mental division into main parts and highlighting their characteristics (shape, size, color, etc.);

Spatial correlation of parts with each other (left, right, above, below, above, below, etc.); Isolating small parts, establishing their spatial location in relation to the main parts; Repeated holistic perception.

Didactic games. They are used to enrich the child's sensory experience. Many games are associated with the examination of objects, with the distinction of signs; they require verbal designation of these signs (“Wonderful bag”, “Paired pictures”, “Opposites”, “The fourth odd one”, etc.). In some games, the child learns to group objects according to one quality or another (closes the mouse in a red window with a red flap, collects only round objects in a box, etc.). In some games, children distinguish the taste of foods (“Know by taste”, and in some they develop their hearing by identifying the players by their voices (“Guess by voice”). And there are a colossal variety of didactic games for the development of fine motor skills (“laces”, “puzzles” , “mosaics”, “Cinderella”, etc.) Thanks to didactic games, children are gradually brought to mastery of sensory standards.

In the methodology of sensory education for preschoolers, several stages can be distinguished.

The goal of stage 1 is to attract children's attention to the sensory feature that must be mastered. To do this, the teacher invites the children to draw something, sculpt something, build something, or make some object that should be similar to the model or meet certain requirements. If children do not have sufficient sensory experience, they begin to complete the task without analyzing the sample or selecting the necessary material. As a result, the drawing or construction turns out to be different.

The inability to achieve results in an activity confronts the child with the need for cognition, highlighting the characteristics of objects and materials. An adult helps children see, highlight, and realize the property that should be taken into account in the activity. This point is the starting point for teaching children how to identify properties and features of objects.

The goal of stage 2 is to teach children perceptual actions and accumulate ideas about sensory features. During the learning process, the teacher shows and names the perceptual action and the sensory impression that was the result of the examination. He invites the children to repeat this idea. The most important thing is to organize repeated exercises in highlighting different qualities. At the same time, it is important to monitor the accuracy of the method the child uses and the accuracy of verbal notations.

The goal of the 3rd stage is to form ideas about standards. At an early age, the child learns sensorimotor pre-standards, when he displays only individual features of objects - some features of shape, size of objects, distance, etc. At the age of up to 5 years, the child uses object standards, i.e., images of the properties of objects are correlated with certain objects .For example: “an oval looks like a cucumber”, “a triangle is like the roof of a house.” At the senior preschool age, children master a system of generally accepted standards, when the properties of objects themselves acquire standard meaning in isolation from a specific object. During this period, the child already correlates the quality of objects with the mastered generally accepted standards of objects: the grass is green, the apple is like a ball, the roof of the house is triangular and etc. Children are taught to use mastered quality standards to analyze objects, they are taught to compare an object with a standard, to notice similarities and differences.

The goal of the 4th stage is to create conditions for children to independently apply the acquired knowledge and skills in analyzing the surrounding reality and organizing their own activities. What is important here is a system of knowledge that requires independent analysis when performing it, taking into account certain qualities, properties, and relationships. For example, the selection of materials and tools for work, etc. All types of activities are widely used both in the classroom and in everyday life.

Familiarization with each type of standard has its own characteristics, since different actions can be organized with different properties of objects. Thus, when becoming familiar with the colors of the spectrum and especially their shades, children’s independent acquisition of them (for example, obtaining intermediate colors) is of great importance. In becoming familiar with geometric shapes and their varieties, teaching children how to trace a contour with simultaneous visual control of hand movements, as well as comparing figures perceived visually and tactually, plays a significant role. Familiarization with magnitude includes arranging objects (and their images) in rows of decreasing or increasing magnitude, in other words, creating serial rows, as well as mastering actions with conventional and generally accepted measurements. In the process of musical activity, patterns of pitch and rhythmic relationships, etc., are learned.

Throughout preschool age, children become familiar with increasingly subtle varieties of reference properties. Thus, there is a transition from familiarization with the relationships of objects by general size to familiarization with the relationships by individual extents; from familiarization with the colors of the spectrum to familiarization with their shades. Gradually, children learn the connections and relationships between standards - the order of colors in the spectrum, the grouping of color tones into warm and cold; dividing figures into round and rectilinear; combining objects along separate lengths, etc.

Development stages:

Children under 2 years old reflect only individual features of objects. For example, taste, then sound.
Children 3-5 years old can assign certain qualities to a specific subject, the so-called subject standards. For example, an apple is sweet, and they will be very surprised if they try an apple and it turns out to be sour.
Children aged 5-7 years master generally accepted standards. For example, an apple is round, sweet, and maybe sour.

At each age, sensory education has its own tasks, and a certain element of sensory culture is formed.

In the first year of life, the main task is to present the child with sufficient richness and variety of external impressions and to develop attention to the properties of objects.

Sensory education during this period is the main type of education in general. Providing an influx of ever new impressions, it becomes necessary not only for the development of the activity of the senses, but also for the normal general physical and mental development of the child. In the first years of life, children develop the prerequisites for sensory standards. From the second half of the first year to the beginning of the third year, so-called sensorimotor prestandards are formed. During this period, the baby displays individual properties of objects that are essential for his movements (certain features of the shape, size of objects, distance, etc.).

From about 1.5 years old, you can introduce the names of colors, shapes of objects, even the pitch of sounds into the child’s dictionary. Of course, it is still quite difficult for a child to distinguish and name all the colors and shades of the spectrum; it is enough for a child of this age to know the four primary colors, the fusion of which form the spectrum: red, yellow, green, blue. The shape of objects also comes down to three basic ones: circle, square, triangle.

In the second or third year of life, the task of sensory education becomes significantly more complicated. The child begins to accumulate ideas about color, shape, size and other properties of objects. It is important that these representations be sufficiently diverse. This means that the child should be introduced to all the main types of properties - the six colors of the spectrum (blue, purple, red, orange, yellow, green, shapes such as circle, oval, square, rectangle.

Starting from the age of three, the main place in the sensory education of children is to familiarize them with generally accepted sensory standards and ways of using them. This is color, shades of color tones, geometric shapes, sizes.

In preschool age, a child uses so-called object standards: he correlates images of the properties of objects with certain objects (he calls orange “like a carrot,” green — “like grass”; he defines a square through the shape of a pocket or handkerchief). Usually this period lasts until the border between the fifth and sixth years of life, but it can be delayed if adults “implant” subject standards into the child’s activities.

Starting from the fourth year of life, children form sensory standards: stable ideas about colors, geometric shapes, and relationships in size between several objects, enshrined in speech. Later, they should be introduced to shades of color, to variations of geometric shapes, and to the relationships in size that arise between the elements of a series consisting of a larger number of objects.

Simultaneously with the formation of standards, it is necessary to teach children how to examine objects: grouping them by color and shape around standard samples, sequential inspection and description of the shape, and performing increasingly complex visual actions.

At older preschool age, children can correlate the qualities of objects with mastered generally accepted standards: the sun is like a ball, a lemon and an oval-shaped cucumber. For a child of this age, the color standard is the seven colors of the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, and their shades; as standards of form - a system of geometric figures, for auditory perception - the “phoneme grid” of the native language, the pitch scale of musical sounds (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si), etc.

Sensory education of children was carried out through different forms of work:

rich subject-development environment (creation of a sensory corner in the group);
experimental games to develop all types of perception;
frontal and subgroup classes;
entertainment
sensory room
a variety of meaningful children's activities.
systematic guidance of the sensory development of children, as a result of which children must know all the standards of the system and be able to examine.
presence of Montessori material in the group.

There are rules for examining objects: perception of the holistic appearance of the object; mental division into main parts and identification of their characteristics (shape, size, color, material, etc.); spatial correlation of parts with each other (left, right, above, top, etc.); isolating small parts, establishing their spatial location in relation to the main parts; repeated holistic perception of the subject. An examination according to this scheme will help children master generalized methods of sensory cognition, which they can use in independent activities.

Throughout preschool childhood, the nature of sensory cognition changes: from manipulating objects, the child gradually moves to becoming familiar with them on the basis of vision, touch, and “visual palpation.” For example, in order to make sure that there is raw sand in the bucket, the baby must touch it, but a child of 5–6 years old only needs to look. The teacher must create conditions for preschoolers to apply their acquired knowledge and skills to analyze the environment. For example, older children are involved in repairing books and boxes for board games, while determining what paper to take (thin, thick, transparent, what length and width to cut strips. Children of early and early preschool age are offered toys that develop their senses and perceptions. This prefabricated toys, inserts, as well as toys made from different materials, differing from each other in size, sound.Didactic games are used to enrich the sensory experience of children.

Many of them are related to the examination of an object, to distinguishing features, and require verbal designation of these features (“Wonderful bag.” “How they are similar and not similar,” etc.). in some games, the child learns to group objects according to one quality or another (puts round toys in a box, collects red mushrooms in a red bucket, etc.). children compare objects with similar and different characteristics and identify the most significant ones. As a result, it becomes possible to lead children to generalizations based on identifying essential features that are fixed in speech. Thus, children fail to master sensory standards.

The child’s further education depends on the level of sensory development. In life, a child encounters a variety of shapes, colors and other properties of objects, in particular toys and household items. He also gets acquainted with works of art - music, painting, sculpture. And of course, every child, even without targeted education, perceives all this in one way or another. But if assimilation occurs spontaneously, without the guidance of adults, it often turns out to be superficial and incomplete. This is where sensory education comes to the rescue - a consistent, systematic introduction to human sensory culture.

Correct perception of shape, size, color is necessary for the successful mastery of many educational subjects, and the formation of abilities for many types of activities depends on this. When introducing children to the various properties of objects, one should not try to memorize and use their names. The main thing is that the child is able to take into account the properties of objects while working with them; it doesn’t matter if he calls the triangle a roof or a square. An adult, when working with children, uses the names of shapes and colors, but does not require this from the pupils. It is enough for children to learn to understand the words “shape”, “color”, “same”.

Knowledge begins with the perception of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world. All other forms of cognition - memorization, thinking, imagination - are built on the basis of images of perception and are the result of their processing. Therefore, normal intellectual development is impossible without relying on full perception.

Montessori Sensory Development Ideas at Home

Despite the fact that Montessori centers use specialized kits for the development of children, it is not difficult to create a game that enriches a child’s sensory experience.

Animal competitions. Discuss with your child how different animals move and try to organize a competition: draw a start and finish line and ask them to run sideways like a crab, hobble like a bear, or jump like a hare.
Modeling. Kinetic sand, salt dough, plasticine and clay perfectly develop a child's tactile sensitivity. You don’t have to try to create a masterpiece right away: just learn how to roll balls, flatten them into pancakes, stretch them into sausages, squeeze them and watch how the material seeps through your fingers

Draw with crayons on the pavement and play hopscotch. Like the previous exercise, this trains not only the senses, but also the child’s coordination.
Game of silence. Is it just not interesting to remain silent anymore? Invite your child to remember 5 different sounds that he heard during a minute of silence (car horn, bird sounds, people talking, a dropped pencil, etc.)
Treasure hunt. Draw a list of objects that your child should find during your next walk (a long rough pine cone, a red leaf, a yellow leaf, a dry branch, etc.). Don't forget to take a pen with you to cross out what you find.
Drawing with stamps, fingers, brushes and even cotton swabs. It is difficult to overestimate the impact of free creative activities on a child’s development.
Guess the smell. Place items with different scents in opaque boxes: your favorite shampoo, orange peel, a little vanilla, dried cloves, fried cutlet. Organize a competition for the keenest sense of smell.
Experiment with musical instruments: xylophone, glucophone, kalimba, drum, tambourine, shaker, pipe. It is not necessary to immediately enroll in a music school to introduce your child to music.
Guess the product by taste. Blindfold your child and ask him to guess what's for lunch today.
Let your child walk barefoot more often, because there is a whole world under his feet: sand, lawn, stream, pebbles.

conclusions

The development of a child begins with the development of his senses. In the 21st century, this is not just the opinion of teachers, but a scientifically proven fact. At an early age, it is very important for a child to learn as much as possible about the world around him using all his senses, which is why no computer can replace a child’s real experience of being in a different environment (forest, park, store, kitchen, etc.). Try to introduce your baby to a variety of objects, and think about how to organize a sensory development area for him, if the ideas of Maria Montessori are close to you.

A child’s sensory development is the development of his perception and the formation of ideas about the properties of objects and various phenomena of the surrounding world.

Sensory standards are generally accepted examples of the external properties of objects. The sensory standards of color are the seven colors of the spectrum and their shades of lightness and saturation, the standards of form are geometric figures, and the standards of size are the metric system of measures (in everyday life, size is often determined by eye by comparing one object with another, then there is this property is relative).

Sensory education is the development of a child’s perception and the formation of his idea of the external properties of objects: their shape, color, size, position in space, smell, taste, and so on. Knowledge begins with the perception of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world.

The importance of sensory education

The importance of sensory education is that it:

-Is the basis for intellectual development;

-Orders the child’s chaotic ideas obtained during interaction with the outside world;

-Develops observation skills;

-Prepares for real life;

-Positively affects the aesthetic sense;

-Is the basis for the development of imagination;

-Develops attention;

-Gives the child the opportunity to master new methods of subject-cognitive activity;

-Ensures the assimilation of sensory standards;

-Ensures the development of skills in educational activities;

-Influences the expansion of the child’s vocabulary;

-Influences the development of visual, motor, figurative and other types of memory.

The sensory development of a child is the key to his successful implementation of various types of activities and the formation of various abilities. Therefore, sensory education should be systematically and systematically included in all moments of the baby’s life.

1. Teach children to look at objects. Grasp them with both hands, trace them with a finger of one hand or the other.

2. Throughout the day, repeatedly tell children the various properties of the objects they are manipulating (color, shape, size, material).

3. Acquaintance with the subject should be carried out with interest, evoking positive emotions in children.

4. The process of examining objects must be accompanied by words. Children remember the designations of the qualities of objects together with their perception.

5. It is necessary to encourage children to demonstrate independence and the desire to share their impressions.

6. Ask your child questions more often.

7. Teach children to act in a certain sequence.

8. The process of perception must include movements of both hands (move your hand along the contour, outline it).

9. Consolidate the knowledge gained during the examination in performing activities (drawing, modeling, appliqué, design).

10. Enrich and saturate the child’s objective world, diversify the world of things that the baby can touch and examine.

11. Teach children to listen to different sounds - this enriches the auditory experience.

As a result of systematic work on sensory education of young children, they develop skills and abilities that indicate the appropriate level of development of perception:

1. Children successfully identify and take into account color, shape, size, texture and other characteristics of objects and phenomena when performing a number of practical actions.

2. Group according to

sample objects by color, shape, size and other properties when choosing from four varieties.

3. Correlate dissimilar objects by color, shape, size, texture when choosing from four varieties (or four varieties of color, shape, etc.).

4. Designate various objects in accordance with their characteristic sensory features: forest, sea, sun, leaves, lights, etc.

5. Actively use “objectified” words-names to designate shape (brick, ball, ball), color (grass, orange, tomato, etc.).

6. Select objects of the required shape or color for the development of an independent plot game (load bars - “bricks” or cubes of a certain color onto the car, select details of outfits for dolls in accordance with the color of their clothes).

Parent library

1. E.G. Pilyugin “Sensory abilities of a baby”;

2. E.A. Yanushko “Sensory development of young children (1-3 years)”;

3. L.A. Wenger “Education of a child’s sensory culture”;

4. T. I. Likhanova, S. A. Prisyazhnyuk, I. V. Petrova “Sensory development of children of early and preschool age. Toolkit";

5. Ayres Ann Jean “The Child and Sensory Integration.” Understanding Hidden Development Problems.”