Parents have a simple wish - hope that our baby is healthy and smart. So, how do you inspire the thinking of preschoolers?
Swiss child psychologist Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development can help us understand the evolution of children's thinking. He divides a child's cognitive development up to the age of 6 into two stages.
0~2 years old is the perceptual-motor stage, and children can gain a preliminary understanding of the world through exploration, attempt, failure, etc.
2~6 years old is the pre-arithmetic stage, children's language ability has been developed to a certain extent, can communicate, can express, often solve problems with their own thoughts and feelings, ignore the essence of the problem, reverse thinking is very difficult.
From simple perceptual motor to gradual abstract thinking, preschoolers' cognitive abilities and ways of thinking can also be greatly improved. Early thinking has an important impact on children's intellectual development and the development of social-emotional abilities.
Learn and use math in real-life situations
Mathematics is highly abstract, rigorously logical, and has a wide range of applications. Compared to other subjects, the characteristics of mathematics are very obvious.
Like other animals, humans are born with a cognitive mechanism for logarithms. Parents can pay attention to placing two piles of candy in front of their child with different amounts, even if he can't make any physical movements, his eyes will be tilted. In addition, the child also has the ability to instantly remember the number of objects presented in succession.
Mathematics does not stay on the pen, and it is not good to let children write on paper. Mathematics is used to solve problems. It is very important for children to learn and use mathematics in real-life situations.
It is not easy to get a child to take out 6 cookies from a box of cookies.
First of all, children need to know many numbers and the sequence between them. Secondly, he also needs to understand the inclusion relationship between the numbers, 6 cookies are contained in the middle of more cookies, and 6 pieces contain the 6th block and the previous 5 pieces. Finally, the child has to engage in abstract conceptual thinking, thinking about why he is taking these cookies and not the rest.
These thoughts are often overlooked because they are taken "for granted" in the eyes of adults. Parents can try to let their child take 8 cookies out of 6 and see what he will do.
What are the abilities of early mathematical thinking?
Mathematics is not just about doing arithmetic problems, recognizing a few figures, and knowing the order between numbers, what really matters in mathematics is thinking. Early math initiation should focus on children's mathematical thinking skills.
Early mathematical thinking skills include the ability to connect, the ability to reason and prove, the ability to represent and communicate, and the ability to solve problems.
Connection, able to discover mathematics-related problems in daily life, and be able to transfer existing mathematical knowledge and experience to new problem situations.
The ability to reason and prove, to be able to make simple logical reasoning based on existing mathematical information, and to try to prove one's mathematical inferences in a certain way, such as operation, language, etc.
Ability to represent and communicate, be able to use a variety of ways, such as gestures, drawings, symbols, etc., to express simple quantities or spatial relationships, and be able to use mathematical language to communicate and communicate with others.
Problem-solving ability, the ability to use mathematical concepts and experience to solve problems in specific situations, reflects the transfer and application of mathematical experience.
After explaining the meaning of the word "many," a teacher asked his grandson, "Where did you see the 'one' and the 'many'?"
The little boy stretched out his hand to his grandmother and said, "Grandmother, you see, I have 'one and many' on my hand, and this is one hand with many bacteria on it!"
This is a mischievous little child whose hands are always dirty. But he quickly transferred his knowledge of "a lot" into his own world.
Children are enlightened in thinking, and parents should act
Early math initiation, kindergarten alone is not enough. In addition to innate factors, family and school factors affect children's mathematics learning and development. What should parents do?
In the early years of children, mathematics is not taught about mathematics, but about providing a very rich and diverse learning resources related to mathematics.
For example, parents can prepare puzzles, building blocks, cards, chess and other educational game materials or toys for their children, which are related to mathematics, which not only stimulate children's imagination and creativity, but also cultivate children's problem-solving skills.
In addition, picture book stories can also provide children with a contextualized, concrete, and connected mathematics learning background, and let children gradually enter the abstract world of mathematics with the help of familiar stories.
Finally, mathematics must be discussed randomly with the child in a real-life situation to provoke problems and allow him to transfer his experience in mathematics. When sorting things, let your child sort them, count trees and petals when walking, and ask your child how many times he has slapped a ball when he is exercising...... Parents should do a good job of parent-child interaction and companionship, and let children feel that mathematics is interesting, useful and beautiful through early mathematics enlightenment.
The author is a professor at East China Normal University and dean of the China Institute of Infant and Child Education at East China Normal University
Edit | Rui Degui
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