Features of mnemonics in teaching preschoolers

For preschool children, one of the most important priorities is cognitive and speech development. The success of his further education will directly depend on the level that the child has time to master before school. At the moment, preschoolers are actively using mnemonics for preschoolers.

The article will describe the essence of this system, its methods and techniques.

What it is?

This developing technology got its name from the ancient Greek goddess Mnemosyne, who was considered the patroness of memory and intelligence. Depending on the complexity, the exercises are designed for children 3-4 years old, preschool, primary and secondary school age... At the moment, there are modifications of this training system that can be used for adults.

Mnemonics are successfully used for the development of speech, memory and cognitive processes in kindergarten. In speech therapy, mnemonics are used to accelerate the development of coherent speech in children, as well as to smooth out its defects.

Educators, teachers and educators, using the methods of mnemonics, contribute to solving many problems in the teaching and development of preschoolers and students:

improving self-control skills, increasing perseverance and the degree of concentration of the child on the task;
effective development of memorization processes, as well as attention, logical thinking and speech skills;
achievement of speech production, correction of its various defects;
training of skills of generalization of information;
development of creative thinking in children;
training in the skills of formulating an oral answer.

Mastering the exercises from this method in the classroom, preschoolers learn to memorize poems and short stories, as well as to independently compose simple sentences and short texts. Children enthusiastically plunge into the creative process, travel through fairy tales, getting to know the bright characters in the illustrations.

This technology allows the child to be interested, so the lesson is easy and interesting for him.

In kindergartens, children master mnemonics by attending a circle or classes in a preparatory group. Often the project of the developmental program of the preschool institution includes classes according to the methodology in all age groups of the kindergarten.

Principles and methods of mnemonics

Learning takes place sequentially, which allows you to harmoniously develop the creative, cognitive and intellectual abilities of the child. In the classroom, bright, fascinating pictures are used, which is very important for the baby and preschooler. At this age, children are predominantly visual-figurative thinking, so they remember best what attracts them visually.

Often, parents are confused about why their child remembers a commercial or a fragment of a cartoon by heart, but cannot remember a short rhyme read aloud to him from a book. The fact is that the picture on the TV activated the baby's involuntary attention. Thanks to this, he was able to unconsciously concentrate on the material that was presented from the screen with the help of vivid images.

The same effect for better memorization and retention of attention during classes can be achieved with the help of colorful fascinating pictures. It is not for nothing that they accompany almost all children's literature. It is visual images that underlie the techniques and exercises that are used at various stages of the technique.

At the initial level, exercises are mastered using the so-called mnemonic squares... Such tasks are most relevant for children of primary preschool age. The kid is shown a picture that denotes an object, animal, profession or natural phenomenon. The task is to correctly name what is depicted on the card. After the child began to confidently orientate himself in visual images and formulate what he saw in the pictures without errors, the teacher proceeds to the second stage.

The next stage of mnemonics is the tracks with images... Tables of various lengths show the sequence of words for composing simple sentences. For a start, 4–5 pictures are enough. Having determined the name of the objects or phenomena depicted on them, the baby himself formulates the phrase, logically connecting the concepts. As you master, the number of patterns in the track gradually increases.

The most advanced and difficult stage is working with mnemonic tables... These are already whole blocks of images. In this case, a separate drawing represents a whole complete phrase. That is, across the entire table, the child needs to compose a short story from several sentences.

At the beginning of mastering this stage of the methodology, preschoolers are offered ready-made tables with pictures. In the case of a successful formulation of a story based on pictures, the task becomes more difficult. The teacher invites the children to write a short story by themselves, depicting successively the stages of its development in the sectors of the table.

In addition to cognitive functions, the use of the technique effectively develops imagination, creativity, drawing skills and fine motor skills.

Lesson rules

Even if the child has high indicators of intellectual development, when getting acquainted with the method, you need to start from the first level, that is, with mnemonic squares. Further, upon the fact of confident mastering of work with tasks, the teacher can move on to the tracks, and then to the mnemonic tables.
Pictures on educational material should be colorful and bright. The purpose of the technique is to capture the attention and interest of the baby for effective mastering of the exercises.
The tasks should be carried out in a playful way. If the baby is clearly not in the mood for a lesson, you should not force him. Mnemonics tasks are designed for creative thinking and lively interest of the child. Otherwise, there will be practically no effect from the execution.
Educators, teachers and speech therapists should record the material covered and the results of each lesson with a group or an individual child.

When working with the most complex material, mnemonic tables, do not overload the child. 1-2 exercises are enough for one lesson.
It is highly undesirable for mnemonic squares, paths, or mnemonic tables to be repeated. This will significantly reduce children's interest in classes.
When working with mnemonic tables, the most successful students can be asked to write a short rhyme. To do this, you need to make blocks of pictures from rhyming words and phrases.

It is recommended to conduct lessons in mnemonics individually or in mini-groups of 2-3 people.

Exercises for preschoolers

Writing a proposal. The kid is offered a track of 3-5 pictures. First, the child is asked to name what is depicted on each of them.

If the child misidentified an object or phenomenon, help him with leading questions.

After how the kid identified what is shown in each picture, he is invited to come up with a mini-story with these objects from one simple phrase... For example, images of birds, nests, trees are presented. The answer is, "Birds make their nests in trees." A more complicated version is abstract images of phenomena or concepts.

To make it easier for the child to remember the rhyme, you can create your own mnemonic table with it. When reading the text to the child, ask him to draw what he represents at the same time... The quality of the drawing does not really matter in this case, it can be schematic. The main thing is that the baby himself remembers which words or phrases he designated with the symbols depicted.
The following task is well suited for the development of logic and generalization function. The child is offered separate images from different areas: animals, people, food, plants, etc. The task of the kid is to select pictures according to a certain criterion... For example, choose only flowers or only edibles. The narrower and more specific the selection area, the more complex the level of feature selection will be mastered.
Composing phrases and stories from separate cards, offered to the child in a mixed form... To begin with, you can try to collect a sequence of actions that are clear and known to the child. For example, hand washing. The kid must lay out the thematic pictures from beginning to end in the correct order.
The same way the child is offered to retell a fairy tale using scenes and images from a work familiar to him... In the early stages, it's best to take very short stories. The student's task is to place the images according to the events taking place in the given fairy tale. Be sure to ask your child to retell what he has laid out using colored cards.

Read a small sentence to the child and ask the child to portray him using a few pictures the way he sees fit. Then shuffle his images and give the task to restore the sequence, and then repeat the phrase read to him at the beginning of the exercise. As the complexity increases, you can read 3-4 sentences, and then short stories.