Lecture
The new formations that arise by the end of the first year of life
necessarily bring about the construction of a new social situation of development
– joint activity with an adult. The content of this
joint activity is the assimilation of socially developed ways of
using objects, which are revealed to the child and then become its
world.
The basic new formations of early childhood include:
1). Upright walking.
2). Verbal communication.
3). Object-related activity.
2. Speech development
In early childhood speech development proceeds along two lines:
development of passive speech
development of active speech
Development of passive speech
At first the child understands the situation as a whole, rather than a specific
object or action. Later the significance of the situation is overcome. But
only in the third year do an adult's verbal instructions really begin to
regulate the child's behavior in various circumstances. The child not only
understands individual words, but also becomes able to carry out
object-related actions on an adult's instruction.
Development of active speech
The development of active speech up to age 1.5 proceeds slowly. The child
acquires 30 to 100 words and uses them very rarely. After 1.5 years
a transition to active, independent speech takes place.
In the 2nd year the child's interest in the surrounding world sharply increases. By
this age children already know about 300 words, and by age 3 –
1200–1500 words.
Alongside the expansion of vocabulary and the refinement of the pronunciation
of words, in early childhood the grammatical structure of language is also acquired.
Three main paths of language acquisition and individual
development of the child's speech are distinguished:
1. imitation,
2. formation of conditioned-reflex associations,
3. formulation and testing of empirical hypotheses.
3. Development of object-related activity
During early childhood the child develops object-related
activity. Its difference from simple manipulation is that the child's actions and ways
of handling objects begin to be subordinated to the functional
purpose of these objects in human life.
Communication at this age becomes a form of organizing and a means of
carrying out object-related activity.
Among the actions that the child masters in early childhood,
the most significant for its mental development are relating and
instrumental actions.
Relating actions are actions whose purpose consists in bringing
two or more objects (or their parts) into definite
spatial relations. These actions require taking into account the properties of the
object and are regulated by the result that must be achieved.
Instrumental actions – these are actions in which one object – the tool –
is used to act on other objects.
In the second half of early childhood the function of substitution is formed,
representing a kind of identification that involves transferring meaning from
one specific object to another, non-specific one. Substitution in the broad
sense of the word is understood as the transfer of meaning from one
object to another, real or ideal.
By beginning to follow the rules for using objects, the child
psychologically enters the world of permanent things.
The main direction of development of the child's higher mental functions
at this age is the beginning of the verbalization of cognitive processes, their
mediation by speech.
By the end of early childhood mental activity takes shape, including
the ability to generalize, to transfer acquired experience from
initial conditions to new situations, and the ability to establish connections
between objects and phenomena through experimentation, to remember them
and use them in solving problems.
The main role in the improvement of all these abilities in early
childhood is played by perception. Improvement of memory, speech,
thinking and movements depends on it. Perception itself also develops
under the influence of these functions.
Throughout early childhood the leading type of thinking is
visual-active thinking.
At about three years of age elementary self-awareness takes shape
and the ability for voluntary self-regulation begins to develop.
By age three personal actions and consciousness appear,
the «I myself» – the central new formation of this period.
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