Development of imagination in preschool children

Development of imagination in preschool children. It is impossible to imagine a child without imagination. The world of children differs significantly from that of adults because children are capable of inventing and thinking outside the box. The ability to imagine helps develop creative abilities, find ways out of difficult situations, and it is easier to adapt in real life if you direct your imagination in the right direction.

Features of the development of creative imagination in a preschool child

The baby takes his first steps towards the ability to use his imagination at the age of three. Play becomes part of the child, wherever he is: at home, on a walk, visiting, on a trip. During this period, the child begins to understand that one and the same object can play the role of several, if you use your imagination. Three- and four-year-old children begin to tell fairy tales - this awakens their previously dormant imagination. But they don't know how to plan. It is difficult to find out from such a child what he is going to draw if the child took pencils and paper. With the help of imagination, the drawing, of course, will be born, but the image of the future “picture” will be built in the process.

Until the age of five, preschool children still do not know how to direct their imagination, but at five or six years old they are already good inventors who can consciously decide what they want to play, what they need to draw, what craft they want to make. Once the goal is set, the work begins. Often, in play, children try to embody the experience they have gained, their impressions of watching a cartoon or a play, or some life scene.

Often children create their own special world if something in the real world does not suit them: difficult relationships with peers or adults, including parents; phobias that the child tries to fight in a self-invented way; problems that are easier to solve in a fantasy world.

In any case, the development of imagination is very important for a child. This is one of the levers with which a little person learns to interact with the world.

Imagination - what is it like?

Research

In fact, you can’t even imagine how many scientific works have been written on this topic!

Moreover, venerable candidates and professors from pedagogy and psychology do not tire of endlessly developing this topic.

Almost all research in the field of children's imagination is aimed at finding new methods for its development, and how to speed up this process. Because everyone can’t wait to cram as many “useful things” into the child’s head as possible.

Finally, there are some unshakable definitions: types of imagination and its development at different ages of the child. And in order to move on, you need to understand these concepts.

Types of fantasy

Everything is simple here. Since young children do not have significant experience or knowledge in any areas. Therefore, all that they can fantasize about is either what was told by adults (other children) or what they read in children's books. Here is the simplest division of such fantasies:

passive - something that will never come true (dreams, daydreams);
active - something that needs to be implemented (in cases with children, this needs to be implemented right now);
creative - not just a repetition of ideas already embodied by someone, but created independently;
reproductive - using other people's ideas in one's own interpretation.

An example of reproductive fantasy is reincarnation into a fairy-tale character. This often happens after reading a book or watching a cartoon.

At the same time, a child, playing any hero, only first takes the prototype of his character.

Then he adds so much of his own and new things that the parents are only surprised: “where does it come from, the fairy tale was about something completely different!”

Categories of imagination

So, in this matter we are primarily concerned with the development of the active variety of imagination. And it is at one time divided into several categories:

verbal - based on speech (inventing new words, selecting similar ones to already familiar ones, etc.);
non-verbal – fantasies based on what has already been seen;
musical – the ability to bring to life or verbally describe musical images;
emotional – to embody or describe, transform into reality the emotional component of images and experiences;
motor – the embodiment of fantasy forms using plastic movement.

In fact, the latter subtypes are quite conventional, for example, in a motor form (dance) one can express musical, emotional and any non-verbal images.

All of the above is a brief theory. It is not necessary to memorize it, but it gives us basic concepts that will be useful in the future.

Types of imagination

Experts distinguish several types of imagination.

Creative

Human consciousness allows you to compose incredible images, without relying on knowledge and experience. Such imagination, with its further development, can even become the basis for a person’s future profession related to writing.

Recreating

This type of imagination is based on existing knowledge; images that the child became acquainted with in classes, in communication with relatives and friends appear from memory and are developed.

Wild fantasy

Uncontrolled imagination, where reality and fantasy replace each other. The child constantly thinks about something and declares that all this actually happened.

Chance to become unique

In fact, from birth, every baby is initially gifted with the ability to fantasize, create, and imagine. But over time, “good” fathers and mothers decide that their child does not need all this. Therefore, they begin to intensively develop logic and analytics in them, and teach them “useful and necessary for our harsh life.”

But this is fundamentally wrong. Undoubtedly, a person who has a lot of useful knowledge and skills in life, no matter how harsh it is, will not be lost. But life will not be good either.

Therefore, by developing our baby’s imagination, feeding his fantasy, we give him an amazing chance to become a unique person.

Methods and techniques for developing imagination in preschool children

Since healthy imagination is important for the harmonious development of a child, adults should help develop this imagination correctly.

There are several effective techniques. They are based on the development of the child’s creative abilities, as well as his mental activity.

This:

Applied activities,
Literature classes,
Didactic games,
Development of horizons,
Development of tactile abilities,
Art, music, dance classes.

Applied activities are one of the methods not only to awaken a child’s imagination, but also to direct him in the right direction. So, drawing or modeling classes will help teach your child to come up with and implement an idea. Construction will make it possible to create something fantasy, but this object can already be touched, it can become the object of games. Let the child come up with things that do not exist in the real world, but this is much more interesting. A fictional thing may have characteristics that the author himself gives it.

A good option to develop imagination is fairy tales that the child himself composes. An adult just needs to help, give a start to imagination. Let this be a simple story, the very beginning. And only then the child must figure out what will happen to the characters next, what adventures await them. And if a child comes up with a fairy tale and draws at the same time, clearly showing the plot, even better.

Didactic games play a great role in the development of imagination. An experienced teacher can interest a child by inviting him to study and play at the same time.

So, you can use the following techniques.

Developing imagination through non-traditional drawing

Unconventional drawing methods are unusual, interesting and useful. The child learns to see the miraculous in the most ordinary things. So, he learns that, it turns out, you can draw, for example, with your palms, a comb and a sponge, and not with a brush, with biscuit cream, and not just with paints. This awakens the imagination, the child has a desire to try new and unknown things.

Here are the simplest ways to draw unconventionally:

Drawing with a candle.
Drawing with splashes through a straw.
Drawing with stamps made from bottle caps, sponges, chewed paper.
Finger painting.
Isothread: the thread is dipped into the paint, pressed against the paper, and the resulting print can be expanded into a real design.
Drawing with a comb.
Drawing with a cotton swab.
Children of any development will enjoy drawing this way. Moreover, some methods help in the prevention of certain diseases, as well as in the correction of speech, breathing, and vision.

Origin

Imagination is inextricably linked with creative thinking. The formation of images and ideas in thoughts is a process of creative activity, i.e. creating something new from previous experience. This means that it relies on perception and memory. How then do children invent images in their games without previous experience? “They are not born without reason, but are a product of processing all previously received information. A word heard or an image seen is fixed in the child’s mind and associated with other information, creating a complete picture. A person’s imagination is formed in several stages.

Development of imagination by means of construction

There are many construction sets on sale that both children and adults enjoy playing with. Of course, there is no need to set complex design tasks for the child. But construction kits with proposed assembly schemes can be the start of an interesting hobby for a child. And if an adult gets involved in the design, then the design itself can turn into a game.

Design helps:

develop spatial imagination,
gain knowledge about shape, size, the first rudiments of knowledge about geometry,
develop fine motor skills, which is useful for the development of thinking,
develop independence, perseverance,
develop imagination.

It will be useful for preschoolers to play with cubes, which will allow them to get a first idea of shape, color, size; mosaic, which teaches you to pay attention to little things; block constructors that create three-dimensional objects for games; Lego, with the help of which children become acquainted with 3D modeling skills.

Development of children's spatial imagination

From an early age, a child is faced with the need to navigate in space. With the help of adults, he learns the simplest ideas about this: left, right, above, below, in the center, above, below, between, clockwise, counterclockwise, in the same direction, in the opposite direction, etc.

Preschoolers are given the necessary primary information, and then the task is set: “What will happen if...”. The conditions under which the action must occur are formulated. The child must comprehend the data received, understand the task and make the right decision in the form of an oral or written answer.

Imagination disorders and their causes

Children may suffer from a lack of imagination or, on the contrary, their imagination becomes uncontrollable.

Imagination deficits are usually experienced by children with speech impairments, because speech and thinking and imagination are interconnected. With speech pathology, the child thinks primitively, he is not able to create a new image, he cannot invent, compose, and also carry out tasks of an adult where he needs to use his imagination. These children usually have difficulty remembering terms, assimilating the acquired knowledge, and do not understand symbols.

Children who have low self-esteem may also have a deficit of imagination. They are afraid of doing something wrong, they are absolutely deprived of independence, which suppresses imagination.

In this case, teachers need to creatively overcome the child’s inhibition step by step, offering to develop abilities through play, the basis of which will be a situation familiar to the child. A good way out of this situation would be the theater. You also need to focus on cognitive activities to broaden the child’s horizons. Emphasis on emotions will play a big role. What impressed you will leave a mark on your soul, and you will want to learn more about it.

Violent fantasy, which can manifest itself in aggression, lies, fears, and the replacement of the real world with a fantasy world, can also interfere with the normal productive development of the imagination.

The reasons for this inadequate imagination may be the child’s internal fears, problems he has with family and peers, inability to get along with the outside world, as well as other psychological problems.

In this case, it is advisable to contact psychologists who will help create an individual program to eliminate the pathology.

Developing a preschooler’s imagination is the key to future successful schooling

Today, in preschool pedagogy and psychology, there is a tendency to underestimate such a mental process as imagination. In the training and education program in kindergarten, among the numerous games and various types of educational activities, insufficient attention is paid to the development of the imagination process; children are often forced to use the proposed template and repeat after the model shown. As a result, teachers and parents complain that even such children's creative activities as games often turn into monotonous manipulations with toys.

Many famous scientists in the past and now have studied imagination, among them L. S. Vygotsky, A. V. Zaporozhets, S. L., Rubinstein I. I. Davydov, J. Piaget, K. Kaffka, T. Ribot, N. P. Sakulina, R. S. Nemov, O. M. Dyachenko, A. I. Kirillova and others.

Imagination is one of the most important psychological phenomena of the human personality. In psychology, there are several definitions of the process of imagination.

According to L. S. Vygotsky: “Creative activity based on the combining ability of the brain is called imagination or fantasy by psychology.” [3, p. 5]

“Imagination, fantasy is a reflection of reality, but in a different, unusual way. unexpected combinations and connections.” [10, p. 7.]

R. S. Nemov gives the following description of the process of imagination: “imagination is a special form of the human psyche, standing apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupying an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory. The specificity of this form of mental process is that imagination is probably characteristic only of humans and is strangely connected with the activities of the body, being at the same time the most “mental” of all mental processes and states. [8, p.260.]

The physiological basis of imagination is the complex activity of the brain, during which a new system of temporary connections is formed. When forming the process of imagination, the second signaling system, the word, is important. The process of imagination represents the work of both signaling systems. All visual images are inextricably linked with words. Usually it serves as a source of imagination.

The peculiarity of imagination is the processing of past experience, presented in the form of concepts and ideas. Here imagination is closely connected with memory. But we must remember that reproduction is the main feature of memory, and transformation is a feature of imagination.

Imagination is also related to thinking. Imagination is the basis of visual and figurative thinking, which allows a person to solve problems in the mind without performing practical actions.

Imagination is closely related to the process of perception. It is included in perception, influences the creation of images of perceived objects, but imagination itself depends on perception. By being included in perception, it enriches new images. Imagination differs from perception in that its images do not always correspond to reality; they contain elements of fiction.

Imagination is also connected with the development of speech. A delay in the development of speech is usually accompanied by a delay in the development of imagination.

Imagination is closely related to the development of the emotional-volitional and motivational sphere of the individual.

There are several types of imagination: passive and active. Passive is divided into voluntary and involuntary.

Based on the relationship between the image and reality, realistic and fantastic imagination are distinguished.

In human life, imagination performs several important functions.

Represent reality in images.
Regulation of emotional states
Participation in the regulation of cognitive processes.
Formation of an internal action plan.
Communication function.

According to the research of L. S. Vygotsky, the main psychological new formation of preschool age is imagination. It is its development that psychologists recommend paying more attention to between the ages of 3 and 12 years. Scientists call this period sensitive for the development of imagination and imaginative thinking.

Children's own experience and ability to objectively evaluate the world around them are insufficient. There are so many incomprehensible and unknown things around that a child can solve emerging problems with the help of imagination and fantasy. They replace the child’s lack of knowledge and experience and help him feel confident in the modern world. A child’s games simply cannot exist without invention.

According to modern research by scientists, a child’s imagination goes through several stages during its development (according to E. E. Kravtsova):

– the first stage is associated with reliance on visibility, with the perceived objective environment,

– the second stage - here the use of past experience is already manifested,

– the third stage is characterized by the emergence of a special internal position, here the development of imagination already occurs from the plan to its implementation.

O. M. Dyachenko identifies the following stages of imagination development:

– 2.5–3 years - at this age the child separates himself from the object, from the action with the object, focuses on mastering objects, actions, turning to substitute objects, highlighting his “I”. And by the age of 3, 2 types of imagination can be distinguished: “cognitive” and “emotional”. The latter is closely related to the use of symbols. Initially, these symbols are borrowed from culture (Baba Yaga, Leshy, Barmaley, etc.), and then created independently (good or bad girl). There is no planning of imaginative images at this age.

– This is the age of 4–5 years. At this stage, the child is aimed at mastering norms, as well as rules and patterns of activity. Adults teach and educate through models that the child must follow. By the age of 4–5, specific planning is included in the process of imagination. Planning tools are words and model representations.

– Age 6–7 years. At this age, the child already masters the basic patterns and gets the opportunity to operate with them. A preschooler is already able to deviate from the learned standards and vary them. At this age, it becomes possible to use an image to solve creative problems. A holistic image begins to be built using the “inclusion” method. Here, for the first time, holistic planning appears: the child can, before starting an action, build a plan for its implementation and consistently implement it, often making changes along the way. Products of the imagination become more original and detailed.

Fantasy. like other mental functions, it undergoes changes with the age of the child. In the youngest preschooler, the passive form of imagination predominates. The child listens to fairy tales with interest, and then imagines their images as real-life phenomena. This means that imagination compensates for the lack of life experience and practical thinking by including fairy-tale images into the child’s life. This is why children believe in Santa Claus, are afraid of Baba Yaga, Leshy, etc. The older preschool age is characterized by activation of the imagination (at the beginning, recreating, and then creative).

Children's imagination has a very important function - reducing fears, striving to understand events through sketches, and making reality more pleasant.

The peculiarity of children's imagination consists, firstly, in seeing the whole before the parts, and secondly, in transferring functions from one object to another.

The currently existing methodology for teaching preschool children is based on the fact that the system of standards is presented to adults in a ready-made form for assimilation, which does not allow children’s imagination and creativity to develop. For the development of imagination, it is not the environment that is important, but how it is presented to the child. Subject diversity does not always contribute to mental development; the main thing here should be the conditions and provision of space that will provide the opportunity to imagine and create.

To develop children's imagination, it is necessary to include non-specific objects in children's play. To develop imagination, it is necessary to expand the experience of children, develop thinking and speech. The games “Draw something”, “Come up with a story”, “Magic pictures”, “Magic mosaic”, “Making a fairy tale”, “Wonderful forest”, “Let’s help the artist”, “Wizards”, “Path”, “Unfinished” are very effective story" etc.

One day, the children and I wrote a whole series of stories. One girl suggested calling the main character Stobed. The children were actively involved. As a result, we have a series of interesting stories about the adventures of one cheerful boy. We wrote down these stories and prepared a handwritten book. Even very shy children got involved in the work. We had a lot of fun with this work, and the children's imagination was in full swing.

The role of play in the development of imagination is great. All aspects of the child’s personality development are formed in the game. Significant changes occur in the psyche. To increase the level of imagination development, it is necessary to diversify children's games. Open-type games and tasks are very effective for developing imagination. Imagination also actively develops in modeling, drawing, and design according to plan. To develop imagination in preschool age, reading fairy tales, stories, viewing paintings and illustrations is actively used. The participation of children in feasible work activities also contributes a little to the development of imagination.

Any learning is associated with the need to imagine something. All this cannot be done without imagination. Fantasy provides the child with a new, unusual view of the world. Imagination contributes to the development of logical thinking, memory, attention, speech, and enriches the child’s life experience. Fantasy ensures the construction of the final result of the activity, the creation of images.

Imagination, as the central psychological new formation of the preschool period, is the necessary foundation on the basis of which the seven-year crisis arises, develops and ends in children, which is responsible for the formation of psychological readiness for learning at school. The main activity within which the development of imagination and psychological preparation for the crisis of seven years occurs is a game.

Literature:

Agaeeva E. L., Brofman V. V., Bulycheva, What does not happen in the world? M., Education 1991
Wenger L. A., Mukhina V. S., Psychology, M, Education, 1988.
Vygotsky L.S., Imagination and creativity in childhood, S-P, Soyuz, 1997.
Dyachenko O. M., Development of the imagination of a preschooler, M., International Educational College. 1996.
Kazakov V.G., Kondratieva L.L., Psychology, M, Higher School, 1989.
Kompantseva L.V., Poetic image of nature in children's drawings, M., Education, 1985.
Kravtsova E. E. Psychological problems of children’s readiness to study at school, M, Pedagogy, 1991.
Nemov R.S., Psychology, volume 1, M, Vlados, 1999.
Nemov R. S., Psychology, volume 2, M, Vlados, 1999.
Petrovsky A.V., The role of fantasy in personality development, M, Znanie.1961.
Subbotina L, Yu, Development of imagination in children, Yaroslavl, Academy of Development, 1996.

What influences the development of a child’s imagination

In order for the development of a child’s imagination to proceed correctly, it is necessary to create a comfortable atmosphere in which the child will learn to fantasize with pleasure and benefit, but will not cross the dangerous line between reality and the illusory world.

Develop speech, since thought processes are associated with speech functions.
Pay attention to the development of the child's fine motor skills. The more actively a child works with his hands, the better he speaks and thinks.
Eliminate loneliness, which, in turn, will eliminate the need for the child to create imaginary friends.
It is important to increase a child’s self-esteem, not by comparing him with other peers, but by comparing him only with himself, based on his achievements and actions.
Trusting relationships with parents play a big role. If a child is not afraid of punishment, then he will not have to lie. But you can encourage creative writing - fairy tales, stories, drawings, crafts.
There should be a lot of creativity in a child's life. These activities stimulate the imagination.

Functions of the imagination

The main functions of imagination as a psychological process are the following:

Representation of reality in the form of images in the human psyche - thanks to the imagination, the surrounding reality is reflected in the internal mental plane of the individual in the form of vivid images;
Regulation of the individual’s activity – finding himself in a problematic situation, through the use of imagination, the individual plans his own behavioral strategies aimed at achieving the desired result;
Managing emotional states. Imagination is used in various areas of practical psychology to manage the emotional state of the individual, provide effective psychological support, optimize the internal state of the individual, harmonize relationships, and interact with the social and natural environment.