How to give your child a superior mind

Give Your Child a Superior Mind: A Program for the Preschool Child by Siegfried Engelmann

Tamsyn

122 reviews30 followers

July 28, 2009

By the same author as "teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons".

I need to change my review. At first I was a little disappointed with this book, but I have found myself thinking about his methods a lot, and now I think I'm going to use his math program, probably a lot. The book just needed time to "sink in". The first part is full of these highly motivating stories about famous people who received early instruction, like John Stuart Mill and Lord Kelvin to name a few. The teaching style for these young children that they recommend is not much different than what you would teach an older child, you just go at a slower pace, and the math program introduces algebra early on in a very staight-forward manner.

I also recommend "Raising Brighter Children" by Sidney Ledson or any of Glen Doman's Gentle Revolution books. They cater to the young child's attention span and interests a bit better than this book, although the lessons he recommends are fairly short, and wouldn't interfere with "just being a kid".

One thing I really liked about this book is that it gives examples of common learning mistakes, why children make them, and how you can help your children overcome them. I almost don't like reading books with titles like this, because the goal is not to have a child who is superior, only to help our kids achieve their full potential. This book is at the USU library.

homeschool parenting preschool

Sarah

44 reviews6 followers

February 28, 2018

The first few chapters are a defense of teaching preschoolers reading and arithmetic at all. They aren't very credible; Engelmann claims that IQ is not heritable when by now an abundance of evidence has proved that it is, and he cherry-picks historical examples of "geniuses" as evidence that early childhood education is useful, rather than actual empirical studies. The child development theory is stated confidently and almost completely without justification.

The rest of the book is a program of study for ages birth through five, starting with teaching words and going all the way to teaching reading, multiplication, and even algebra. The progression at every stage is pretty common-sense. Letters first, then words by themselves, sounding things out; counting, then adding objects, then learning to recognize written numbers, then adding written numbers, starting with +1's and then "counting by twos" and so on. This is more or less how I learned from my own mother and how I would think it was most natural to teach. It's hard to imagine that there are *other* ways to teach children the basics.

Valerie

Author 14 books45 followers

This book talks about ways to teach children to read and math concepts before age 6--the time when their brains are moving the fastest and thus the easiest time to add to them. I believe in this concept. I used the Teach Your Baby to Read series with several of my children and it is amazing and wonderful to see them read early and have it feel effortless, compared to sweating through letter by letter teaching when they're older (which I'm doing with one son who didn't get taught early because I didn't know about it then).

I like the Teach Your Baby to Read series better for reading. But I really liked how this author explained to me how to teach math to young children. I just finished teaching adding and subtracting fractions to my 10, 8, and 6 year old and because I could explain it simply (following the book's instructions), they caught on immediately and it felt so easy to them. Fractions! It's so easy to teach Math poorly and so I love this book for that reason alone! It taught me a simple way to teach math. That is no small thing!

I studied artificial intelligence in college and Engelmann's ideas, though old by today's standards, are dead on in my opinion. You'll want to use his "Teach your Child to read in 100 easy lessons" for teaching reading, and Singapore math books are better than his detailed math activities, but the underlying philosophy the mind maps to its environment is difficult to disagree with. A fabulous book.

I was voraciously reading books on childcare after my first child was born, and this was one of them. I'm not sure if I put many of the ideas into practice, but I recall thinking it was interesting.

1-non-fiction parenting-education

Cathy

1,273 reviews2 followers

I came across this book on my dad's shelf, and read it because I was curious to compare the current educational philosophy with that of a generation ago. It's interesting to me that the book begins with the arguments the educators have against parents teaching or helping their children learn before school age, and how to refute them. Today's educators definitely encourage parents to work with their kids, enriching their environments, and so forth. One interesting difference in current philosophy is the idea of preschools. The author reports that the I.Q. level of a child drops with the number of children in a class, and that one-on-one parent-chld preschool teaching is best, even if the parent is not a qualified educator. Considering the popularity of today's institutional preschools, either that information is overlooked, or it is outdated, or the preschools are able to compensate. As for the how-to sections of the book, the teaching style seemed very natural and comfortable to me, very reasonable, and very much like those that I implemented. The main difference is that today's early childhood development experts put a higher value on music for brain development, and I thought this book went a bit extreme at the end, in trying to teach a five-year-old child algebra. It seemed reasonable to me up to that point, but I doubt many children possess the abstract thinking abilities for algebra at that age. I would balance this book with David Elkind's "The Hurried Child," about the anxieties and problems in pushing children too far too fast. At the time of this book's printing, not many parents pushed their preschoolers too hard and that wasn't a societal problem. In the current age, difficulties in pushing children too hard are common. There must be a balance between encouraging children to be all they can be, without pushing them too hard. To be fair to the Engelmanns, however, "Give Your Child a Superior Mind" does recommend an arbitrary limit of teaching a preschool child less than 2 1/2 hours a day.

parental-roles parenthood parenting

Miranda

664 reviews4 followers

I bought this book with two things in mind: being a current educator and a future mom. I found it FASCINATING that many of the methods he teaches for math/ELA goes hand in hand with the best teaching practices of today - and this book was written in 1966! Granted, many of the models shown for math, such as he area model for multiplication is typically used for older children and not five year olds.

I really liked the balance between "formal" education and letting the child have free play. He consistently says formula education should be between 1-1.5 hours a day. A majority of the day should be for exploring. I also liked that the 0-18 month "curriculum" is centered around creating experiences more than formal education.

I can't wait to try some of these methods with my future child - though I'm not so sure about the algebra at five idea. ;)

This was by far the best book I have ever read about children education. It's full of specific details and with a great amount of information based on scientific method. I wish this book could be read by anyone who would like to become a parent. This is an indispensable tool to let any child grow with a mind that can allow them to embark at their full potential in their life. Anyone that will put in practice these instructions, will demonstrate to their children what unconditional love really is.

I discovered this book after using his highly successful Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons to teach my oldest daughter to read. I was, however, skeptical about how relevant the book could be given that it was published over 50 years ago (1966). The title is misleading: this is not a book about creating an achievement-seeking child that is superior to others. That said, I enjoyed the overview of the so-called geniuses like John Stuart Mill and their upbringing (spoiler alert: they had demanding and doting parents), but the real crux of this book is the valuable strategies that Engelmann suggests. His advice, much like in the reading book, borders on being too rigid and paternalistic. I've used it to teach some basic math to my daughter (age 6) and will probably re-read the math curriculum to start teaching her fractions. Overall, the book provides a clear argument that the child's brain can be taxed more than we realize given the right environmental cues and time for rest and exploration.

Happy Reading!

Read

Saw a reference to this somewhere and found at the library out of interest. It got a little intense by the end but his theory and teaching methods are almost identical to Montessori (concrete to abstract, 3 period lesson) which I find fascinating.

Engelmann's Give Your Child a Superior Mind

I can't say that I whole-heartedly recommend Give Your Child a Superior Mind: A Program for the Preschool Child, by Siegfried and Therese Engelmann, because I have quite a few reservations about it, not least of which is the old-timey racism*, but for what it's worth, the guy does actually offer a structured plan for early childhood academics, which is nearly impossible to find anywhere, outside of maybe Montessori's stuff.**

* Example, so that you might judge for yourself: "There are many environments within our culture. Each makes different demands; each manufactures a different product. The lower-class Italian environment does not expect much from the child (in terms of independent behavior, toilet training and language) and the lower-class Italian in America shows the effects of his passive environment. In fourteen studies cited in 1958 by Maslan, Sarason and Gladwin, 'Italians consistently fell near or at the low end of the continuum (sometimes below Negro groups selected for comparison).' "
** Richard Gentry's Raising Confident Readers: How to Teach Your Child to Read and Write--from Baby to Age 7 also seems to be scientific, sensitive and largely non-insane

Anyway, just so I could process this book a little, mentally, I outlined their "curriculum" recommendations beginning at 18 months. I skipped the detail on the reading because I think it's largely obsolete and/or better explained in Englemann's other, more famous (and still in print) book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

When I get a chance, I'll also compile a list of the Englemanns' multitude of declarative sentences about what "the child should know" by "age X." These statements are absolute anathema in contemporary early childhood education, so it's refreshing to encounter the Englemanns' wild and crazy standards of yesteryear.

EIGHTEEN TO THIRTY-SIX MONTHS

Naming objects
1. Names for parts of the body
2. Common objects
3. Learning names of animals
4. Names of uppercase letters
5. Names of lowercase letters
Qualities, actions, geometric shapes, and relations
1. Color
2. Light and dark
3. Hot and cold
4. Action words
5. Action words of the senses
  1. Sight
  2. Hearing
  3. Touch
  4. Smell
6. Geometric shapes: Triangle, circle, square, rectangle
7. Position relations
  1. In
  2. On
  3. Next to
  4. Behind
  5. Over
  6. Under
  7. Around
  8. Between
  9. Others: Against, through, in front of
8. Comparative words
  1. Big-little
  2. Fast-slow
  3. Tall-short
Counting
Introducing right-left
Stories
Music
How Things Work: Vacuum cleaner, kitchen range, washer-dryer, typewriter, piano, light bulbs, beaters, toasters, coffee-maker, knife sharpeners, can openers, et al.

THREE TO FOUR YEARS

Reading
Arithmetic
1. Counting objects
2. Picking up blocks as they are counted
3. Counting out a specified number of objects
4. Counting to thirty
5. Counting backward from ten to zero
6. Number symbols through 10
7. What number comes next?
  1. Counting every other number
  2. What comes after any given number
  3. Skipping pattern
  4. Backward pattern
Facts and statements about the world
1. Facts about the child's formal relations with others
  1. Name, address, phone number
  2. Familial relationships
2. Time concepts
  1. Tomorrow, today, yesterday
  2. Days of the week
  3. Months of the year
Qualities, actions, geometric patterns, and relations
1. Before and after
2. First and second
3. New and old
4. Same and different
5. Because
6. Patterns
7. Visual inferences
8. Right and left
9. Right and left turns
Identifying the planets
Identifying dinosaurs
How things work
Objects

FOUR AND FIVE YEARS

Reading
Mathematics
1. Algebra problems
2. If-then propositions
3. Multiplication
4. Area of rectangles
5. Telling time
6. Fractions
7. Division
8. Money
9. Column addition
10. Column subtraction
11. More about the relationship between the terms of a problem
12. Multiplication and division
Spatial Relations, Inferences, and Practices
1. Spatial relations
  1. Playing spatial games
    1. Fascination checkers
    2. Regular checkers
    3. Tic-tac-toe
    4. Three-dimensional tic-tac-toe
    5. Chess
  2. Judging distances
  3. Directions
  4. Interpreting maps
2. Inferences from statements
3. Practice in skills already mastered
4. Factual knowledge
  1. Mandatory: Human body
  2. Optional: Child's interests

Further reading: What Your Toddler/Preschooler Should or Could Know, According to Engelmann's Give Your Child a Superior Mind

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

How to develop a child's speech.

April 24

How to develop a child's speech. From birth to three years.

Many parents believe that before their child utters the first words (and this usually happens at the age of about a year), it is useless to talk to him, because he, they say, still does not understand anything and still cannot learn anything. Nevertheless, “obscure sounds” are already the formation of speech, and it begins long before the first words appear. And already at this, the very first stage, the main function of speech is clearly visible - communication.
Teaching a child to speak consists mainly of how you speak to the child and how you explain to him with the help of words various actions and manifestations. The child gets acquainted with the things that you name him. And if you want to develop his speech, then you and your environment must verbalize, i.e. to translate into words, to explain in words the various actions that he performs.

0 to 1 month
Hearing and vision of newborns work from the first days of life. If you drop something with a crash, the child will wrinkle and cry. Offer the baby interesting objects to look at, and by about the tenth day of life, he will follow the moving toy with his eyes. Above the crib, strengthen something that sounds, if the baby accidentally touches the toy with a pen, the sound will attract his attention. Leave the child's hands free, because for development it is very important to study your hands, to watch how they move.

Remember that a child receives all knowledge about the world around him by observing and communicating with you. Do not leave him alone for a long time and do not be a silent mother. Be sure to hug your baby, stroke the back, tummy, arms, legs, let him feel your love.

1 to 2 months
Try to communicate with your baby as much as possible. Speak affectionately, calmly, smile and try to interest the child in your speech. For him at this age, not so much words are important as intonation, facial expressions and gestures. Your baby will quickly figure out that you can get attention by shouting. And you, having determined by crying what is bothering the child, say what you are doing: “You are hungry, now we will eat”, “You are wet, now we will change your diaper”, etc.

2 to 3 months
Now the toys that have fallen into the field of view of the child, he examines carefully. Try to catch what the child's eyes fell on and name this object to him. Give your baby as many opportunities as possible to hear your speech and try to repeat it. Coo, talk, repeat the sounds uttered by the little man, and be sure to smile at the same time. When you hear the child hoot, answer him, let him know that you hear, understand that you like the sounds the child makes. Take a rattle and rattle it, move it so that the child can see it. He will follow her with his eyes, and when you put her in his hands, he will grab her tightly and try to shake her.

3 to 4 months
Now the baby is looking at you completely meaningfully (up to three to four months, the vision of newborns is considered underdeveloped). You smile at him, and he smiles back at you, he even already knows how to laugh loudly and cheerfully. When you put the baby on his tummy, he holds his head well and for a long time, which means that the view also increases. Lay out various objects in front of him, giving him the opportunity to carefully examine them, and do not forget to explain everything to the child. Name and pronounce everything that the child does and everything that you do. At this age, the baby becomes very active, rolls over on his own, carefully looks at moving toys and is well guided by the voice. When talking with him, move away and bring your face closer, deviate to the side, move away so that he does not see you, but only hears you.

When playing with your child, use no more than two toys at a time. First of all, let the baby see the toy, move it around him, touch the baby with it, hide it, let the child try to find it by sound. You can hang toys above the crib that are easy to grab, they should be bright, simple and safe.

At three months it's time to start playing the "horned goat":
There is a horned goat,
For the little guys,
I gore, I gore, I gore.
The child will laugh merrily at the approach of a formidable two-fingered horned goat.

4 to 5 months
At four months, the child begins to walk. When you hear a hum, be sure to answer it.

Now it's time for some simple language exercises. Sitting in front of the baby, stick out your tongue, puff out your cheeks, lick your lips and sing different sounds, let him imitate you. When the child squeezes the toy in his fist, try to pretend to take it away, saying: "That's how tight you hold the toy, well done! Now give it to me," etc.

Place toys where the child can reach them. At first, you can help him by slightly moving the toy, while encouraging the baby to reach for it himself. In the future, try to get the child to get an interesting object on his own. Your baby will try to put everything in his mouth, do not interfere with this, because this is an important stage in the study of objects. Just make sure that there are no small parts that can be swallowed and that all items are clean.

Talk to your baby more and more often, saying everything you and your baby do. At the same time, try to diversify the intonation with which you speak.

5 to 6 months
Now your baby can listen to melodious music with pleasure. Let the music be heard now closer, then farther, sounds now to the right, then to the left. A five-month-old baby is very interested in musical toys. He carefully feels them, shakes them and examines them with interest, bringing them to his face. Offer him sounding toys of varying degrees of volume. Imperceptibly move away the toy that interests the baby, stimulating the child to crawl after it.
Do not forget to discuss with the baby everything that is happening around. The child does not yet understand the words, but the tone in which they are pronounced catches excellently. Therefore, talk to him affectionately and calmly, smile at him more often.
Also now is the time to start playing hide and seek. You cover your face with your palms and ask the child: “Where am I?”, And opening your face with the words “Ku-ku” (or “Here I am!”), While smiling broadly. You can diversify the game by hiding behind different pieces of furniture, and appearing from there, saying "And here I am."

6 to 7 months
At six months, the child begins to repeat individual syllables, having heard this, repeat after him and finish the word, for example, "ma-ma, ba-ba." Talk more with the baby, let him imitate you as much as possible, listen to your speech. It is imitation that develops the mobility of the lips and tongue, and the child develops the skill to respond to your words.
A six-month-old child already plays well with toys, and when a toy falls, he begins to look for it, to reach for it. Help the baby while saying: "Where is our dog? The dog has fallen, now we will pick it up. Here is the dog, take the dog." Now the child is attracted to toys where something changes, moves or is taken out.
Leave the baby alone for a while, let him try to occupy himself. This will teach him to focus and begin to teach him to be independent.

7 to 8 months
Your child has become more active, he no longer drops toys, but tries to throw them. Why swing a rattle, it is better to knock it with all your might on something. Try to speak slowly with the child, use one-two-syllable words, because the baby can already repeat some of them. Showing the child a toy, call it: "Where is our dog? Here is the dog. How does the dog bark? Av-av" Then put the toy aside and ask him where the dog is, he will turn his head in the direction where you put the toy. Voice for him various animals, both toy and real.
Give the child lids from pots, empty boxes, jars, show him the sounds that occur when they are tapped against each other. Just do not forget about the safety of the baby, do not give him breakable objects and those that can be swallowed.
At this age, you can try to play patty.

8 to 9 months
If you ask your eight-month-old baby to sit, stand, give a pen, he will do it all with pleasure. Therefore, ask him to repeat after you a variety of movements. Continue to play the hidden toy, cover the toy rabbit with a diaper and ask where it is. The baby will immediately tear off the diaper from the toy, and you will definitely praise him for it.
Now you will need a soft toy, such as a dog. Considering a toy with your child, say: "This is a dog. Here are the ears of the dog. Where are the ears of the dog? But the eyes. Where are the eyes of the dog?" Then you can show how the dog walks, barks, growls, eats.
For the development of breathing, use turntables, pipes, pieces of paper that need to be blown away.
Name even objects well-known to the baby, explain them in different situations, this will help him remember and use these words faster and easier.

9 to 10 months
A nine-month-old baby can already be offered to put nesting dolls into each other, string the rings of a small pyramid. Try to ask him "Give me a cube" - and he will give it to you. "Drop it!" - tell him, and he will throw the dice.
Constantly talk to the baby, explain everything to him, but do not overload with complex information. When talking with your child, encourage him to repeat different sounds, syllables, words. When playing with a doll, we show her eyes with a finger and call them, then our own, then the eyes of a child. Next, we continue to look for the eyes of a bear, cat, grandmother, dad. Thus, we study all parts of the face. Place a mirror in front of the baby, let him examine himself, touch his nose, eyes and ears, looking at himself in the mirror. Be sure to explain everything to the child: "And who is this in our mirror? And this is Sasha. Here are Sasha's eyes, but Sasha's ears," etc.
You can try to paint with finger paints, maybe your fidget will like it.

10 to 11 months
The baby can begin to pronounce words at this age. Don't worry if this doesn't happen, because all babies are different and your baby can say his first word at 11 or 12 months. This is also normal. Your child already understands a lot and it's time to introduce the word "not", but only in relation to what is really NOT.
Now your baby willingly comes into contact with you. He pretends to be hiding, playing peek-a-boo, pretending to be afraid of the "horned goat". He knows how to open boxes, roll cars, collects a small pyramid. You still label your actions and your child's actions with words. It is necessary that the baby gradually learns: each item is somehow called. Try the same game, you scatter several different toys, and offer your child to collect them in a box.

It's time to start playing White Sided Magpie and other finger games - it develops fine motor skills very well and stimulates the development of speech. :
White-sided magpie,
Cooked porridge,
She fed the kids.
Gave it to,
Gave it to,
Gave it to,
Gave it to,
But she didn't give it!
He didn't saw wood,
Didn't carry water,
Didn't cook porridge.
When reciting a rhyme, we bend in turn all the fingers of the baby, starting with the little finger, except for the big one.

The time has come for drawing with pencils. Give your child a pencil, a sheet of paper, and let them draw scribbles for their own pleasure. Instead of pencils, wax crayons can be used.

11 to 12 months
Your baby continues to get acquainted with the outside world. All adults in the house should use every opportunity to talk with the baby, to teach him something.
Play "magic bag" with your child. To do this, collect a few animal toys in a small bag (you can use a small pillowcase). Show the dog's head from the bag and ask the child who it is. After hearing the answer, ask how the dog barks, what he eats, where he lives, how he walks, etc. If the child does not know this, then answer yourself, and let him listen.
Start playing story games: we put the doll in a crib, we drive the car into the garage, we feed the bear with porridge. Constantly show and explain to the child your actions, but do it not in a strict tone, but very kindly. Sit on the sofa with the baby, take a book and look at the pictures together, naming them, while letting him turn the pages himself.
Do not forget about music, right now its perception is laid. Quiet, melodic music is useful for a child's nervous system, but always be guided by the preferences of your baby.

Communicate more with your child, name everything you see around you, the actions of people and actions with objects during a walk. If the baby goes to kindergarten or spends the weekend away from home, discuss how his day went, your day, what plans you have for tomorrow. In addition, you can use special exercises and games.

For children under 2 years:
• "Repeat after me". Start doing actions with some toy, for example, with a bear. Say actions: “Look, I feed the bear. Like this. Now you feed the bear… What are you doing?” - “I feed the bear”, etc.
• "Play the pipe." Buy a pipe (or whistle) for your baby, let him learn how to blow into it, this will help develop exhalation strength. Soap bubbles can be used to form a long exhalation.

For children under 3 years:
• "Choose from two". Pick up pictures depicting objects whose names differed in one sound, for example, “mouse-bear”, “house-smoke”, “nose-knife”, ask the child to show where one object is and where the other is.
• Joint retelling of familiar fairy tales with a repetitive plot: "Turnip", "Teremok", "Zayushkina's hut", etc.

lower jaw.

The main stages in the development of a child's speech.

First stage - cry
After birth, the baby sometimes feels some kind of discomfort - and screams (still at the level of an unconditioned reflex). When the needs of the baby are satisfied, a certain stereotype of behavior is formed in the child, and the cry becomes a signal of discomfort (wet, hungry or sleepy, sad, lonely). Gradually, with the help of a cry, the baby learns not only to attract attention to himself, but also to communicate. Remember, when your baby calls you, he first screams, and then waits for an answer: will mom come or won't she? Then he screams louder and waits again. Thus, the child gives his "interlocutor" the opportunity to join in his first dialogue. By about the third month, the intonation of cries also changes. An attentive mother can distinguish a lot of different cries of her child - it can be grumbling, whining, discontent, a sharp screech of pain, angry "exclamations".

Second stage - cooing
Usually these are various variations of sounds: a-a-gu, gee-s, ge-e, a-gee, etc. It is curious that babies of different nations walk the same way. In cooing, as in screaming, the moment of interaction is also important. The kid can walk and be left alone in the room, but with your appearance, the walk becomes more active. If you look closely at the child, you will see that he does not just make sounds. The kid at this time looks into your eyes, waits for your answer, he is already trying to build a full-fledged speech dialogue. And this dialogue must be supported! After all, while cooing, a child learns to coordinate both voice and gaze, which will later become the basis of any social contact. Answer the baby in his language, support and encourage his first "performances" in every possible way. Gradually, the child begins to pronounce long chains of sounds, as if imitating himself. And he will try to imitate you too. A baby at this age is trying to feel sounds and words for the first time. So far, it is not so much the meaning of words that is important for him, but different intonations, the rhythm of speech, the articulation of various sounds.

Third stage - babbling
As the child develops, the cooing subsides, and babble comes to replace it. This usually happens at the age of 6-7 months. Your baby begins to pronounce the individual syllables "ba", "ma", "ta", etc. - at first once, very rarely and as if by accident. Gradually, syllables are heard more and more often in his speech, they are repeated in the form of chains: ba-ba-ba-ba, ma-ma-ma-ma.

Cooing and babbling are very important for the further development of speech. If your baby does not have them, try to activate them.
Holding the child in your arms so that he can clearly see the movement of your lips, repeat various syllables, sing rhythmic songs, read simple rhymes, and most importantly, talk to the baby as much as possible. He needs to hear adult speech. However, these should not be just conversations that adults have with each other, but a speech addressed specifically to him, to the child.

Stage four - first words
At this stage (usually it starts at 11-12 months) it is very important to help the child in his word creation. Right now, the baby begins to associate words with environmental objects, words are filled with meaning for him. Now you can expand your repertoire of reading aloud. Try to call things by their proper names (not "Let's put this thing over there", but "Let's put the doll in the crib"). Do not forget to comment on your actions when you are with your baby.

Speech therapists advise to train the muscles of the lips and cheeks. To do this, stock up on various whistles, harmonicas, a toy flute and teach your baby to blow into these instruments. It is also useful to blow soap bubbles (however, you will have to constantly monitor so that the child does not drink the soapy solution). Another fun way to exercise your lip and cheek muscles is to make faces with your baby. Do not hesitate to make funny faces, expressively portray a variety of emotions (surprise, fear, joy), stick out your tongue, lick your lips.

The first words will be onomatopoeic: bang, boom, woof-woof, beebika. Do not be afraid of these infantile, "lyal" (as my eldest daughter says) words. This is a very important moment in the development of speech. It is still difficult for a child to associate an abstract word (for example, dog, car, fell) with a specific object or action. If the word is at least somewhat similar to an object or action, such a connection is much easier to establish (for example, a dog says “av-av”, a car says “beep”, and a falling object makes “boom”).

When your baby tries to repeat some words after you, you can read poems “by roles” . For example, the famous poem about geese:
Adult: Geese, geese!
Child: Ha-ha-ha!
Adult: Do you want to eat?
Child: Yes, yes, yes!
Adult: Bread and butter?
Child: No, no, no.
Adult: What about you?
Child: Candy!
Adult: Well, fly as you like, just take care of your wings. They flew and flew (the child waves his arms), sat on his head.

When you read familiar poems or sing songs to your child, pause at the end of the line so that the child can complete the line.

Words and gestures
For young children, non-verbal communication is even more important because at some stage it is the only way for them to "talk" to you. It is very useful to reinforce words with certain gestures. First, the baby learns to reproduce the gesture, and then he repeats the word. At the same time, try to use the words “give”, “bring”, “take” more often, ask the child to fulfill simple requests.

Don't be shy about childish gestures, such as pointing fingers, but on the contrary, help your child learn them. Gestures can also carry emotional overtones. With gestures, the child can accompany your reading of poetry or singing. For example, like this:
I play the violin - tili-li, tili-li, (the kid holds an imaginary violin in his hands and “plays” on it),
Bunnies are dancing on the lawn - tili-li yes tili-li (“dancing”, twirling with raised arms).
And then on the drum - bam-bam-bam, bam-bam-bam (the child taps his palms on some surface),
In fear, the bunnies ran into the bushes! (hides face in hands).

Or like this:
A clumsy bear walks through the forest (the child sways with his legs wide apart),
He collects cones, sings songs (bends over an imaginary cone).
Suddenly a bump fell right on the bear's forehead (slaps his forehead).
The bear got angry, and with his foot - the top (the baby stamps his foot).

Or like this:
Zainka, dance, gray, dance. Dance like this, dance like this, dance like this (the child “dances”).
Zainka, stomp your foot, gray, stomp your foot, stomp your foot like this, stomp your foot like this, stomp your foot like this (stomps one or the other foot).
Zainka, clap your hands, little gray one, clap your hands, clap your hands like this, clap your hands like this, clap your hands like this (the baby claps his hands).
Hare, bow, gray, bow, bow like this, bow like that, bow like that (bows).

You can also beat "Toys" by Agnia Barto. The kid shows how the bull sways on a shaky board, how the girl Tanya cries bitterly, pities and strokes the poor bear with its paw torn off.

Needless to say once again that the famous finger games simultaneously train the child's "talking gestures" and fine motor skills, which are also very useful for the development of speech. These games will help your toddler build vocabulary and match words to very specific actions or objects.

It is important to note that when parents understand the child too well without words, there is simply no need for him to convey any message to them. Perhaps here sometimes you have to be a little tricky, pretending that you do not understand what the child wants from you until he tries to tell you about it.

If a child communicates with you using babbling, gestures, his first words are about to appear. Don't worry if it happens a little later than you think it should. Do not compare your baby with the girl next door, the son of a friend and the niece of your colleague! The development of each individual child may have its own individual characteristics. However, there are some important milestones in your baby's speech development that you should pay special attention to:
Cry , which is initially a reaction to discomfort (hunger). Too quiet and maximally comfortable child is not so good as it seems.
Revitalization complex (smile, animation) when an adult appears (appears at 1-3 months).
Cooing. How and when does your baby walk? Does he look into your eyes at the same time, does he “sing” his baby songs while in your arms, do you feel his need for communication?
Babble (appears at 6-10 months), the child clearly attracts attention with the help of some sounds.
Pointing gesture (appears at 8-13 months). This is a very important moment in the development of the child, preceding the appearance of the first words, because before naming an object, the baby needs to learn how to show it.
Emergence of basic social gestures eg goodbye (9-12 months).
Understanding and fulfilling simple requests , the appearance of elementary story games (feed the doll). The child usually passes this stage at the age of about one year.

Special techniques for developing speech and stimulating speech activity.

Talking to yourself.
When the baby is close to you, start talking out loud about what you see, hear, think, feel. You need to speak slowly (but without stretching the words) and clearly, in short, simple sentences - accessible to the perception of the baby. For example: “Where is the cup?”, “I see a cup”, “The cup is on the table”, “There is milk in the cup”, “Tanya drinks milk”, etc.

Parallel conversation.
This technique differs from the previous one in that you describe all the actions of the child: what he sees, hears, feels, touches. By using Parallel Talk, you are prompting your child for words that express his experience, words that he will later begin to use on his own.

Provocation or artificial misunderstanding of the child.
This technique helps the child to master situational speech and consists in the fact that the adult is in no hurry to show his understanding and temporarily becomes "deaf", "stupid". For example, if the baby points to a shelf with toys, looks at you pleadingly and you understand well what he needs at the moment, try giving him the wrong toy. Of course, the first reaction of the child will be indignation at your dullness, but this will also be the first motive that stimulates the baby to name the object he needs. If there is a difficulty, tell the baby: “I don’t understand what you want: a pussy, a car doll?” In such situations, the child willingly activates his speech capabilities, feeling much smarter than an adult. This technique is effective not only for naming objects, but also for verbally denoting actions performed with them.

Distribution.
Continue and complete everything the baby says, but do not force him to repeat - it is enough that he hears you. For example:
Child: Soup.
Adult: "Vegetable soup is delicious", "The soup is eaten with a spoon"
By answering the child with common sentences using more complex language forms and rich vocabulary, you gradually lead him to complete his thought, and, accordingly, prepare the ground for mastering contextual speech.

Sentences.
The use of game songs, nursery rhymes, sentences in joint activities with kids gives them great joy. Accompanying the actions of the child with words contributes to the involuntary learning of his ability to listen to the sounds of speech, to catch its rhythm, individual sound combinations and gradually penetrate into their meaning. Having learned to distinguish the variability of amusing sound combinations, children, imitating adults, begin to play with words, sounds, phrases, capturing the specifics of the sound of their native speech, its expressiveness, imagery. Most of the works of oral folk art were created with the aim of developing the motor activity of the baby, which is closely connected with the formation of speech activity. The more small and complex finger movements a child performs, the more parts of the brain are included in the work, because it is directly connected with the hands, or rather, crosswise: with the right hand - the left hemisphere, and with the left - the right. It is important to satisfy the baby's need for emotional and tactile (touching, stroking) contact with adults. Most children are kinesthetic by nature: they love to be stroked, hugged, held hands. Oral folk art just contributes to the saturation of the need for affection, for physical contact.

Select.
Give your child a choice. The formation of responsibility begins from the moment when the baby is allowed to play an active role in what concerns him personally. The implementation of the possibility of choice gives the child a sense of self-importance and self-worth. By the age of two, the baby can make his own choice if this right is granted to him by adults: “Would you like to pour half a glass of milk or a whole glass?”, “Would you like a whole apple or half?”, “Do you want to play with a doll or a teddy bear?”

Games with natural materials.
A huge influence on the growth of a child’s speech and cognitive activity is exerted by the variety and availability of objects that he can explore from time to time: look at them, taste them, manipulate, experiment, make small discoveries about them and with them. In its instinctive striving for self-development, the child, already in the first year of life, irresistibly rushes to sand, water, clay, wood and paper. There is a lot of meaning in “fussing” with them: the child is busy with work, he gets acquainted with the material, studies its properties, functions, etc. The most beloved and best toys are those that the child created himself: fortresses from sticks; ditches dug with an old spoon or scoop; paper boats; dolls made of rags, paper or straw.

Productive activities.
At an early stage of speech development, the child masters the most diverse languages that replace words - gesticulation, facial expressions, onomatopoeia, elementary images. The word is for the child only one of the ways of expressing thoughts, but far from being the easiest. For many of his thoughts and ideas, he does not find suitable words, and expresses them in his own way, in other, more accessible ways: through productive activities. Drawing, modeling, application, design develop not only the child's linguistic abilities, but also sensory ones, which are of particular importance in the formation of mental activity. A person's thought becomes more definite and understandable if it is written down. A preschooler cannot and does not know how to write, and therefore he fixes his thoughts and ideas with the help of their sketches. So he fixes on paper all the ideas, feelings, thoughts, their combinations and intricacies that arose in his mind or soul during a certain period. An adult, writing down his thoughts, has the opportunity to repeatedly return to work with them: read, “polish”, supplement and formulate to a truly conceptual meaning. The child is incapable of such conscious work: he has drawn and abandoned, his thought, his imagination has already gone in another direction. Putting a thought into a word in such a way that it becomes clear to others is one of the most important tasks of speech, communicative and mental development, where each specific drawing of a baby has an enduring and unique meaning. Try to turn any child's drawing into an interesting story, and the story into a drawing that you need to repeatedly return to, "read" and supplement. When there are enough such stories and drawings, you can sew them into a book and “read” them to your friends and relatives. A child who understands what he is saying, who combines a distinct idea with the spoken word, reliably masters his native language.

Replacement.
"Imagine that ..." - these words are filled with a special attractive force for the child. At the age of two, the kid imagines with pleasure that the cube is a pie, and the shoe box is an oven. By the age of three, he is able to imagine himself as an airplane, a cat, a flower, etc. The words sound like a magic spell for a child: “Imagine that we are airplanes. Now we will fly around the whole room. Such an etude-game form develops the child's reflexive and empathic abilities, without which communication will not be full and developing. At this age, children also really like pantomime games, which activate the curiosity and observation of the baby. You can involve a child in such a game with the help of a sentence question: "Guess what I'm doing now." It is preferable to start with elementary actions: comb your hair, brush your teeth, eat an apple, pour milk, read a book. After the child has guessed, invite him to think of an action for you, and then “revive” the situation you set: set the table; walk on warm sand; run away like a fox carrying off a rooster; walk like a papa-bear and a son-bear, etc. Pantomime games and imitation games are the first step in a theatrical and plot-role-playing game.

Role play.
This type of children's activity at a young age is only being formed, and it acquires the fullness of the development that leads to it somewhat later. But this does not mean at all that there is no need to organize elementary plot-role-playing actions during this period. With some ingenuity, adults may well organize role-playing games. For example, playing on the phone, when a child, using a toy device, can call mom, dad, grandmother, fairy-tale characters. Playing on the phone stimulates the child's speech development, builds self-confidence, and increases communicative competence. Encourage children's tendency to imitate - this develops attention to detail, awareness of the direct and figurative meaning of words.

Music games. The importance of musical games in the speech development of a child can hardly be overestimated. Kids sing along with pleasure, adore noise musical instruments, ritual games such as "Loaf", "Over the bumps", "The woman sowed peas", etc. Encourage the child's desire to move to the music, sing along. It's okay that the child first pronounces only the endings or the last words of the song lines. Subsequently, he will begin to sing small songs in their entirety and, possibly, distort some of the words. This should not scare you - sing the song along with the "main performer", but, unlike him, sing it correctly. More often give the baby the opportunity to move to a variety of music, independently extract sounds from various objects, accompanying himself. A child dances and sings about what he sees around, hears, invents his own songs and melodies - this is how a creator is born!

Source:
www.r-rech.ru
MedEncyclopedia - MedPortal.ru
Inessa Smyk, Daria Golubeva

What to do with a child during the holidays, as well as how to combine remote work with raising children (and not go crazy) - article on TChK

Being experienced telecommuters and parents, we will tell you how you can work from home “with a baby on your head” and how to captivate children of different ages, as well as reveal the secret why getting up early is good.

How to entertain a child during the holidays

Unite the family

Holidays are a special time for children. Rest from the surrounding society can result in the fact that in the first couple of days the child will only do what to lie on the bed and occasionally walk towards the kitchen for sandwiches. Give him some time to recover (and remember how you yourself feel at the beginning of a long-awaited vacation after a busy reporting period). One day the child will nevertheless mature to joint leisure, and the question will inevitably arise before you: what to do on vacation? And here's what we can offer.

Hiking and traveling

Of course, you can take backpacks, tents, sleeping bags and provisions for a week and go to the forests of Karelia. But you can do it much easier: grab a blanket, sandwiches, fruit, a large thermos of tea, cards or boards and go to the nearest large park. In winter, such a walk is easily replaced by a joint skiing or ice skating trip.

Another option is to book a hotel in a nearby town, which is an hour away, and spend the whole day (and night) on a real trip: go to museums, have lunch and dinner in cafes, buy magnets and souvenirs. Residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg do not even have to travel outside the metropolis - just take the metro and get to the historical center. The citizens of St. Petersburg were especially lucky: the whole center is already a large open-air museum.

Board games and puzzles in the evenings

If you don't like children's games, but want to spend time with your children, take a look at board games and jigsaw puzzles. Board games develop logic and reaction speed, identify leading behavioral strategies, and simply allow family members to have fun. And to turn on the competitive spirit, you can record the daily results of games in a table, promising the winner a reward.

Collecting puzzles promotes the development of voluntary attention, imaginative and logical thinking, and is also considered a good substitute for meditation, since a person is completely focused on action.

Cooking delicious food together

Christmas and New Year's gingerbread cookies, rose buns, happy dumplings or rolls - cooking unusual and favorite food together engages children's attention and promotes bonding. There is also a chance that the child will one day surprise you by baking his own pie for you to wake up. By the way, in order to captivate a teenager with this activity, you can offer him to film the cooking process and post it on TikTok.

Conducting experiments

Growing crystals, creating an electric motor from a battery, copper wire and a magnet, writing on paper with invisible ink from milk and extinguishing soda with lemon juice - these experiments often do not require any special substances and devices, but they can arouse interest in natural science even in a gloomy teenager. The main thing is to be able to explain the magic that is happening in a simple and understandable language for a child.

Preparing for the New Year or any other holiday

During the autumn holidays, you can decorate your house with your children, carve a lantern out of a pumpkin, hang a cobweb out of thread, whip up a scary outfit and go to collect candy from your neighbors. Winter holidays are timed to coincide with the New Year holidays: it’s good for the whole family to bring home a real Christmas tree at the end of December and decorate it by taking out a box of toys from the highest shelf of the closet. In a few hours (or a couple of days), the house will turn into a sparkling New Year's picture, delighting both children and adults.

Heavy artillery: what can captivate a child for a long time while you work remotely

School holidays are a fleeting phenomenon, but remote work and study in the outgoing 2020 have become commonplace. Here are the best ways to keep kids of all ages entertained for the long term: these tips may come in handy in the near future!

Child from 1 to 2 years old

Age-related features of the psyche

At this age, the child goes through the stage of experiments with objects, looking for new ways of interacting both with people and with different elements of the surrounding world. At the age of 1. 5, symbolic thinking begins to emerge, and the baby recognizes real objects in the images.

Spending time together

All games for the development of speech are suitable: role-playing games with toys, where the parent pronounces the names of objects and actions, reading books, joint walks, during which the elders name everything that the child sees.

Games for the development of gross and fine motor skills: ball games, dances, patties.

Independent games

At 1-2 years old, children can sit for a long time with educational toys and interactive development centers, wooden multi-cubes with a labyrinth system, business boards (the latter can be made independently from a plywood board and everything left from the last repair), sensory boxes and sets of multi-colored cubes.

Child 3-5 years old

Age-specific mentality

From the age of 3-3.5 years, the child's communication skills sharply develop. Children easily get along with peers and older playmates, learn to share, swap toys and, most importantly, play story games together. The age of 3 to 5 years is a great time to start playing sports, as the child's brain "grows" to control the body in space.

Spending time together

Everything that contributes to the development of creative thinking and fine motor skills: joint drawing, modeling from plasticine and clay, creating applications. At the same age, children usually master puzzles and begin to understand the meaning of board games.

Independent games

In order for the baby to “stuck” on a toy for a long time, it must be bright and pleasant to the touch. Children are attracted to pure colors, glitter, lights, sparkling things. You can give the child a huge sheet of paper or an album, watercolors and brushes or plasticine, and then find him playing role-playing games with plasticine figures.

For long independent games, constructors (lego, 3D puzzles, prefabricated houses and cars), a toy railway are suitable. Girls can act out scenes with dolls.

Child 5–7 years old

Age characteristics of the psyche

5–7 years old is the age of fantasy development, in which fiction and reality are often intertwined. This is the peak of expressiveness of children's fears (darkness, monsters, fabulous villains) and at the same time the age of testing and overcoming oneself.

Older preschoolers become more mentally and physically resilient, they can exercise a lot, play sports and play outdoors. By the age of 7, the child is perfectly oriented in space and often in time (knows the concept of hours, minutes, is not afraid of waiting). At this age, the first true friendship arises.

Spending time together

Walking in the parks, visiting museums and cafes, reading books in the evenings, playing board games on weekends and everything that makes the child understand that despite the gradual separation from the parents, he still remains in contact with them.

Independent games

Often children aged 5-7 already know how to read, so it does not hurt to collect good children's literature (if a child is passionate about reading, there is a chance to “lose” him for a couple of hours with a book). Puzzle constructors are still a good option. The latter perfectly develop logical thinking and help to find non-standard ways to solve problems.

Life hack: if your neighbors or friends have children who are the same age, you can arrange a “exchange” so that several children take turns playing with each of the friends (this will give not only the opportunity to work in silence, but also a chance to completely exhale and accumulate resources).

Child 7–11 years old

Age-related features of the psyche

Time of rapid growth of both the body and the brain. At this age, the child has an excellent memory, very high learning abilities and increased concentration (albeit for a short time). Younger schoolchildren love competition, praise, and the attention of older ones, but if they fail, they can even give up what they once loved.

Playing together

The easiest way to keep a child aged 7-10 is to engage in activities related to movement. Walking, jogging, swimming together in the pool, walking the dog or horse riding, dancing or playing football in the yard.

If games, then "championships" in which the winner gets some kind of reward (don't forget the consolation prize for the losers). It is important to show the child that he is needed and can become the first in the competition.

An interesting book can be used to keep a child aged 8–11 during the holidays. By the way, at this age children not only read. Often they are visited by their own ideas and stories, so we advise the student to buy a thick notebook and pen (or allocate space at the computer) and let them write a fairy tale. And then print it in a printing house and put it on the shelf so that the creation becomes a family heirloom.

Independent pastime

Younger students are already independent from their parents: they are more interested in playing or hanging out with friends than with mom and dad, or doing their own thing. In order to keep a child aged 7 to 11 years old, sometimes a tablet with interesting online lectures, computer games, a rich bookshelf or circles and sections within walking distance from home is enough. But still, do not write off the designers: it’s not a shame to go through Lego parts until the child enters puberty.

Adolescence

It is generally accepted that in adolescence, the interaction of a child with a parent comes down to a request for money for a game console, “like Seryoga”, but we still believe that this is not so. Together with a teenager, you can take creative courses online and offline, play complex adult board games, make films and videos for a vlog, discuss everything in the world, travel and attend cultural events.

But still buy a prefix if you can afford it. So you will have a little time to take a break from your teenager who switched to remote study during quarantine, and it’s also not forbidden to play yourself to unload the brain.

Advice for parents. How to endure working from home with children on your head and not burn out

So, everything has already happened. Have you yourself switched to work from home or were you among those who were transferred to a remote location due to quarantine, but now you have to sit in front of a computer in an apartment, often in the same room with a child trying to climb on your head right during a Zoom meeting . Only cartoons help to fight off the constant “moms, moms, moms” or “dads, dads, dads”, but the constantly included tablet in a child usually causes a parent to feel guilty. We have 2 blocks of useful tips for you.

Tip 1. Put on your oxygen mask

When flying in an airplane, there is a rule of thumb: in an emergency, the oxygen mask is put on by an adult first, and only then he provides it to a child. Thus, an adult can quickly "get together" and control what is happening. The transition to remote work is also a kind of accident, because working from home is absolutely not something that we all really dreamed about (sometimes, of course, I wanted to be able to “escape” from work to my own apartment and change into pajamas, but not every day! ).

Therefore, the first step is to find strategic resources for parents. These can be the first morning cup of good coffee in a relaxed mode, time for a walk alone with yourself, yoga not at home, but in the studio, an hour for thoughtless, aimless, but enjoyable drawing, swimming in the pool or an evening watching your favorite movie, perhaps with completely unhealthy chips or popcorn. In general, everything that makes your life more fulfilling, switches your attention, replenishes your psychological resource and distracts you from the two main topics for the near future - work and children.

Tip 2. Make a clear action plan

Experienced freelancers who have been working in the same house with children for years advise to write down a daily routine once and introduce it consistently and systematically for several weeks until everyone in the household gets used to it. A clear daily routine is needed in order to mobilize your strength (when there is a time frame and a deadline, procrastination recedes) and make it clear to the child that the parent works a certain number of hours during which he cannot be touched. For a more convenient distribution of time “work - child”, it is better to set a timer (for example, an hour for work, half an hour for paying attention to the family, and so on in a circle).
Get up early. It will be difficult at first, but the morning hours are always the most productive for work: they allow you to concentrate and do the most important before breakfast. If you have a toddler of preschool age, be sure to use the "daytime nap" option. In an hour and a half in silence, you can manage to do an incredible amount.
Connect your partner if he also switched to remote work. You can walk with the child for a couple of hours: mom - in the morning, dad - in the afternoon. This, firstly, will again give time to work or recover, and secondly, it is also useful for adults to move and breathe fresh air. If the partner works as usual, call for help grandmothers, neighbors or babysitters who can replace you for 2 hours.
Take a couple of hours to make a big list of online activities for kids, including YouTube tutorials, National Geographic wildlife movies, and English learning apps. In the end, even cartoons will do: Peppa Pig hasn't hurt anyone yet, and you can buy time to work or relax.
Once a week, go to the nearest children's store (without a child) and stock up on small inexpensive toys that can be given out as needed when the child gets bored.
Learn more