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Arbitrary attention in preschool children: features, relevance, problem. Child's attention

"Be more attentive!" - this phrase increasingly accompanies a growing child both at home and in kindergarten, and even during walks on the street.

"Do not be distracted, otherwise you will carry the porridge past your mouth!" - jokes the grandmother, watching as the spoon in the hand of the grandson, staring at the TV screen, froze halfway from the final goal.

"Why is your blouse skewed? Yes, you buttoned the top button on the lower loop! Why are you so absent-minded today?" - the teacher is perplexed, straightening the clothes on the girl.

"Let's put the toy in the bag for now, otherwise it distracts you a lot, and you don't look at the road at all," the mother suggests to her son when crossing the street.

How many such statements are addressed to a child by adults every day!

At first glance, these are teachings-moralizing. The adult considers the child absent-minded and seeks to activate his attention. But if you think about it, you can find in these same statements an indication that the child is very focused. It's just that his attention is directed not to what is important from the point of view of an adult, but to what is significant for himself.

The child is not interested in a spoonful of porridge, but in what is happening on the TV screen. The buttons of the blouse were fastened diagonally, because while dressing her mistress was carried away by a conversation with a neighbor about new dolls. A favorite toy in the hands of a child is much more attractive to him than the situation on the road, especially since his mother is nearby, who can control this situation.

Attention is a mental process that is necessarily present when a child learns the world and manifests itself in the direction and concentration of the psyche on certain objects. Due to the work of attention, the child chooses the one that is most interesting, meaningful and important to him from the huge flow of information continuously coming from the surrounding world. The nature of attention is manifested in the fact that the selected object, occupying the main, dominant position, creates in the human cerebral cortex the strongest focus of nervous tension - the dominant. In this case, the action of all other stimuli is inhibited. They do not reach the child's consciousness, he does not notice them.

Allocate external attentiondirected at objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, at the actions of other people. The manifestation of this type of orientation and concentration of the psyche can be noticed already in the infant. Searching movements of the eyes, turning the head towards the source of light, smell or sound, fading - such behavioral reactions make it possible to identify objects that are of interest to the baby, as well as to record the manifestation of his attention.

In a preschooler, you can also observe the manifestation inner attention, which is directed to his own thoughts and experiences. The most striking example of this is the situation when a child, having abandoned all affairs, freezes with a detached look. Do not mistake such detachment for absent-mindedness. On the contrary, it is the culmination of inner attention. What became his object, only the child himself knows about it, having gone into the world of his thoughts, fantasies, experiences.

Concentration and focus of the psyche can arise in response to any strong, unusual, sharp, sudden stimulus without any effort on the part of the person. Such attention is called involuntary. It appears together with the question: “What is this?”, Which arises when we are faced with something new, unusual. For a child of five to seven years old, this question is very relevant. "Ordinary miracles" await a preschooler in a variety of situations and at very different times.

Imagine, for example, that during a class in kindergarten, loud noises are heard from behind the door, or a bright toy appears on the next table, or a remote-controlled car starts moving, which is surreptitiously guided by a peer who is not at all keen on the occupation. You can be almost one hundred percent sure that the kids will involuntarily direct their mental activity to these events and, of course, will be distracted from the topic of the lesson.

Involuntary attention differs by spontaneity of origin, lack of efforts for its appearance and preservation. Having accidentally arisen, it can immediately fade away.

An experienced educator will surely cope with the situation that aroused the involuntary attention of children using his own mechanism. To return the children to class, an adult will introduce some new, unusual element into his course. For example, a fairy tale character staged by a teacher will come to visit children at the moment when they are distracted by an extraneous event, or a "postman" will bring an important message. The involuntary attention of children will work again. In this case, his object will become an occupation.

In the sixth year of life, the child himself begins to control his own attention, forcing himself to focus on something important and necessary, sacrificing something interesting and interesting. The kind of attention in which a person sets a conscious goal to concentrate on something is called arbitrary. In this case, setting and achieving a goal requires the expenditure of physical energy, which is given by emotions and will. The child, showing voluntary attention, spends not only his time, but also part of his energy. This is why it is important to thank the child for showing voluntary attention.

For example, on Sunday, the little sister watches cartoons in the living room, and her older six-year-old brother, having tightly closed the door of the children's room, is finishing an application that needs to be brought to kindergarten tomorrow. He also wants to watch cartoons, but it's important to finish the craft. Collecting emotions and will into a fist, the boy courageously directs his activity towards the application. Wise adults will surely mark his purposefulness with a kind word.

How does voluntary attention develop? The means by which the child begins to control his attention, he receives in the process of interaction with adults. Parents, educators include the child in such new activities as games by the rules, construction, etc. By introducing the child into these activities, adults organize his attention with the help of verbal instructions. The child is directed to the need to perform specified actions, taking into account certain circumstances.

For example, an adult accompanies a child when building a city from construction kit parts, saying: "When you start building a house, choose the largest parts for the foundation. So, that's right. And where is the biggest one now? Look!"

Later, the child himself begins to designate with words those objects and phenomena that need to be paid attention to in order to achieve the desired result. So he masters one of the main means of managing attention - the ability to verbally formulate what he will be guided by. During preschool age, the use of speech by a child to organize his own attention increases sharply. Fulfilling the task according to the instructions of an adult, children of older preschool age recite the instructions 10-12 times more often than younger preschoolers. Thus, voluntary attention is formed in preschool age in connection with the general increase in the role of speech in the regulation of the child's behavior.

It often happens that activities that at first required volitional efforts to focus attention, then become interesting and captivate the child. At the same time, voluntary attention turns into post-voluntary attention, in which the characteristic features of both voluntary and involuntary attention are mixed. With voluntary, post-voluntary attention is similar to activity, purposefulness, and with involuntary - the absence of efforts to maintain it.

While working on the applique, the boy imperceptibly got so carried away that he stopped listening to the TV sounds coming from the living room. His attention was completely captured by the plot of the picture emerging in his hands. "Wow! You're doing great!" - the admirable remark of his sister took him by surprise and was very surprised. It turns out that the cartoons are over, and he did not notice during the interesting lesson that a lot of time had passed.

Thus, although involuntary attention remains predominant in preschool age, by the age of five or six years one can observe the development of voluntary and post-voluntary attention.

In older preschool age, they develop and properties of attention.

The amount of attention - this property depends on the number of objects that the child can simultaneously perceive, "grasp" with the same clarity.

To determine the amount of attention of the child, you can conduct this game. Place 10-15 small items on the table and cover them with a handkerchief or napkin. Then open the items for 3 seconds and close them again. How many items can the child name?

It has been proven that, on average, an adult focuses his attention on no more than seven objects. By the age of six, a child is able to simultaneously perceive not one object (as it was at four or five years old), but even three, and with sufficient completeness and detail. But the scope of attention is narrowed if the child simultaneously perceives several objects unfamiliar to him or objects that are close to each other or, conversely, are dispersed over a large area. For example, if a child is presented with two similar pictures, the perceived objects are "confused".

By the age of six, not only the number of objects that the child is able to perceive at the same time increases, the range of objects that attract the attention of children also changes.If at the age of three or four, the child's attention was attracted by bright, unusual objects, then at the age of six - outwardly unremarkable objects. The child's interest is increasingly likely to be aroused by a riddle, a question. And in those objects that the child liked before, he begins to notice otherwise. He is more and more interested in the person himself, his activities, and not so much outwardly bright, unusual objects. In the appearance of a person, his behavior, clothes, the child notices details.

Stability of attention shows how long a child can maintain a sufficient level of mental focus on an object or activity.

If younger preschoolers can play the same game for 30-50 minutes, then by the age of five or six the duration of the game increases to two hours. This is because the game of six-year-olds reflects more complex actions and relationships of people, and interest in it is supported by the constant introduction of new situations. The stability of attention increases when looking at pictures, listening to stories and fairy tales. As the well-known child psychologist V.S.Mukhina points out, the duration of viewing a picture increases by about two times by the end of preschool age; a six-year-old child is better aware of the picture than a younger preschooler, identifies more interesting sides and details in it.

In the study of T.V. Petukhova, preschoolers were given an unattractive task: they had to arrange scraps of colored paper in boxes of different colors. The duration of such activity and the duration of distraction from it were noted. It turned out that children from five and a half to six and a half years old can do something of little interest for them about four times longer and are almost five times less likely to be distracted by extraneous objects compared to children two and a half to three and a half years old. Older preschoolers are able to keep their attention on actions that acquire intellectually significant interest for them (puzzle games, riddles, educational-type tasks).

When organizing education for children of six years old, it is important to consider the following features of attention sustainability... It has been established that six-year-old children are able to actively and productively engage in the same activity for no more than 10-15 minutes. It is optimal if a lesson for six-year-old children lasts 35 minutes, and breaks - at least 20 minutes. Six-year-olds can have no more than 20 lessons per week. Of these, 8 lessons are devoted to the subjects of the aesthetic and labor cycle. Experts have found that in a six-day school week, six-year-olds have the highest performance on Tuesday and Wednesday. On these days, it is advisable to conduct four lessons, and on other days - three. In the middle of the week or at the end of the week, a "light day" is recommended: one lesson (lesson) that requires a lot of attention, two others - easier (music and singing, familiarization with the world around, physical education, fine arts). Thursday can be made generally free from classes, devoting it to games, sports entertainment.

Concentration of attention determines how much, how intensely the child can focus on the object, as well as how much he is able to resist distracting circumstances, random interference. Most often, the power of concentration in preschoolers is small, it is important to develop it.

For example, such an exercise is aimed at developing concentration of attention. Try learning a poem with your child while the radio or TV is on. Learn the first quatrain with a very weak sound. As you memorize the second quatrain, turn up the volume slightly. Practice the last quatrain with a loud enough sound.

Switching attention determined by the speed of the child's deliberate transition from one object or activity to another. At the same time, the transfer of attention is always accompanied by some nervous tension, which is realized by volitional effort.

Distribution of attention assumes its dispersal at the same time to several objects. It is this property that makes it possible to perform several actions at once, keeping them in the field of attention. At preschool age, switching and distribution of attention are poorly developed and require training.

This exercise can be used to train switching and distribution of attention. The child is offered a sheet with lines consisting of different shapes that are alternated: circles, squares, rectangles, trapezoids, ovals, etc. The task is given: cross out one figure (for example, a circle) with a vertical line, and another figure (for example, a triangle ) underline with a horizontal line, skip all other figures.

Attention is one of the unique properties of the human psyche. Without it, the work of memory and thinking is impossible. Attention is required to succeed in the game, sports, any business. An attentive attitude towards people is especially important. It's great if a child understands this already in childhood.

Anastasia Valik

METHODS AND TECHNIQUES FOR DEVELOPING THE ARBITRARY ATTENTION OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Attention - this is the direction and concentration of human cognitive activity on any objects, phenomena, connections of reality.

Attention is a through mental process, since it never appears separately, but only together with any activity, as its side or characteristic. Attention has no special content, it is within all processes.

Views attention.

Differ (Dobrynin) three kinds attention:

1- involuntary attention as an unintentionally arising orienting reaction;

Involuntary attention(also common to animals) is not associated with the formation of a conscious goal, volitional effort or problem solving. Attracts attention is all new, unusual, bright, unexpected. This kind attention manifests itself also as a reaction to the disappearance of the stimulus, to the onset of movement and its termination, to a change items by size, shape, color, all kinds of contrasts, changes in the behavior and appearance of people, changes in their own states. Involuntarily draws attention to itself a sudden stop of the device, an unexpected change in illumination, a number among letters, a woman in a man's company, a student who came to class in a weekend suit.

2- voluntary attentionassociated with purposeful volitional efforts;

The main characteristic arbitrary attention is its connection with deliberately set goals, with the formulation and solution of problems, with volitional effort. If a involuntary attention correlates with immediate interest, then arbitrary - with mediated ( "This work is not directly interesting to me, but it is in my interests."). The process of achieving a goal (solving the problem) may be unattractive to the subject, but the goal is attractive. Due to certain circumstances, it must be achieved, therefore, it is necessary to show volitional efforts, to mobilize activity.

By the end of the day, the person is very tired, but still takes on the work that must be done today. The student begins to solve the problem, although he would love to chase the ball with his friends. Arbitrary attention accompanied by an awareness of the situational need to complete the task, an understanding of the meaning of the activity, the desire to achieve success, the desire to avoid the troubles that will come if something is not done.

Arbitrary attentionforming on the basis of involuntary, is a specifically human species attention, derivative from work. It is the result of a person's involvement in the system of social relations, his introduction to culture, the result of education and, under certain conditions, self-education.

Since there is a mechanism for shifting motive to goal (see 5.2, interest in the result of an activity can make the actions themselves attractive. This means, at the same time, that attentionbeing first arbitrary, after a while it may become involuntary... In this regard, some experts distinguish a third type attention - post-spontaneous... The reader, at first unwillingly, under the influence of external circumstances, took up reading the book (attention is arbitrary) ... However, after a while I got involved, the book turned out to be interesting, and now no volitional efforts are needed. Is it it never happened with us in school years that we forced ourselves to take up our home task, and then we got carried away with it and solved it with pleasure, without any volitional stress? This form attention, according to N. F. Dobrynin, “cannot be reduced simply to involuntary attention, because it is the result of our consciously set goals for ourselves. But it does not require continuous volitional efforts, and therefore does not tire us. "

3- post-spontaneous attentionwhen, as a result of the shift of the motive to the goal, the performance of the action is carried out without significant volitional efforts.

IN voluntary attention is allocated:

volitional - manifests itself in conditions of interference, when there is a conflict between want and need;

expectant - manifests itself in all vigilance tasks;

actually voluntary - conscious attention, but flowing quite easily, with a minimum of effort;

spontaneous - the highest form development of attention, similarly post-spontaneous, this is when it is difficult for us to start something, but once started, there is no need to make an effort.

Features of the development of attention in children

preschool age

Educational activities preschooler requires good development of voluntary attention... The child should be able to concentrate on the task, for a long time to keep it intensive (concentrated) attention, switch at a certain speed, flexibly moving from one task to another. but arbitrariness cognitive processes in children 6-7 years old occurs only at the peak of volitional effort, when the child specially organizes himself under the pressure of circumstances or on his own motivation. In ordinary situations, it is still difficult for him to organize his mental activity in this way.

Age feature of preschoolers - comparative weakness arbitrary attention... Much better they have developed involuntary attention... Everything new, unexpected, bright, interesting in itself attracts attention of preschoolers without any effort on their part.

Besides the predominance involuntary attention to age features also include its relatively low stability. Even the children of the preparatory group do not yet know how to concentrate on work for a long time, especially if it is uninteresting and monotonous; their attention is easily distracted... As a result, children may not complete the task on time, lose the pace and rhythm of activity. As a concretization, we can say that only to the third grade attention can persist continuously throughout the entire lesson.

So weakness arbitrary attention - one of the main reasons for difficulties preschooler... In this regard, it is important to consider how this species is formed attention and with what techniques it can be developed and adjusted... It has been proven that, in contrast to involuntary attention voluntary attention not a product of the maturation of the organism, but the result of a child's communication with adults and is formed in social contact. When a mother names an object and points at it to a child, thereby distinguishing it from the environment, there is a restructuring of attention... It ceases to respond only to the child's natural orienting reactions, which are controlled either by novelty or by the force of the stimulus, and begins to obey the speech or gesture of the adult interacting with him.

For example, a child who learns to draw something first moves his entire arm, eyes, head, part of the body and tongue. Training consists in strengthening only one part of the movements, coordinating them in groups and eliminating unnecessary movements. Arbitrary attention and is aimed at braking unnecessary movements.

In his development of voluntary attention goes through certain stages. Exploring the environment, the child first selects only a number furnishings... Then he gives a complete description of the situation and, finally, an interpretation of what happened. At the same time, at the beginning the development of voluntary attention provides children with the realization of only those goals that are set for them by adults, and then those that are set by children on their own.

The development of the stability of voluntary attention is studiedby determining the maximum time children can spend focusing on one game. If the maximum duration of one game for a six-month-old child is only 14 minutes, then by 6-7 years it increases to 1, 5–3 hours. This is because the game of six-year-olds reflects more complex actions and relationships of people, and interest in it is supported by the constant introduction of new situations.

Also, towards the end preschool period(6-7 years old) the child has arbitrary forms of mental activity. He already knows how to consider objects, can conduct targeted observation, there is voluntary attention... Also when looking at pictures, listening to stories and fairy tales. As the well-known child psychologist V.S.Mukhina points out, the duration of viewing the picture increases towards the end preschool age approximately twice; a 6-year-old child is better aware of the picture than a younger one preschooler, highlights in it more interesting sides and details. For just as long a child can be focused on productive activities - drawing, designing, making crafts. However, such results of concentration attention achievable only if there is interest in this activity (what we talked about above)... The child will languish, be distracted and feel completely unhappy if it is necessary to be attentive to those activities, which he is indifferent to or does not like at all. Likewise concentration of attention also develops... If at 3 years old in 10 minutes of play the child is distracted from it on average 4 times, then at 6 years old - only once. This is one of the key indicators of a child's readiness for school.

Development of attention in older preschool age associated with the emergence of new interests, broadening the horizons, mastering new types of activity. Older preschooler is turning more and more attention to those sides of reality that previously remained outside of him attention.

Development of attention in childhood a number of successive stages:

1) the first weeks and months of a child's life are characterized by the appearance of an orientation reflex as an objective congenital sign involuntary attention, concentration is low;

2) by the end of the first year of life, there is an orientation - research activity as a means of the future development of voluntary attention;

3) the beginning of the second year of life is characterized by the appearance of rudiments arbitrary attention: under the influence of an adult, the child directs his gaze to the named object;

4) in the second and third year of life is developing original form arbitrary attention... Distribution attention between two objects or actions of children in age up to three years is practically inaccessible;

5) at 4, 5-5 years, the ability to direct attention under the influence of complex instruction from an adult;

6) at 5-6 years old an elementary form appears arbitrary attention under the influence of self-instruction. Attention the most stable in vigorous activity, in games, manipulation of objects, while performing various actions;

7) at 7 years old age develops and improves attention, including strong-willed;

8) in senior preschool age, the following changes occur:

Expanding volume attention;

- the stability of attention increases;

Formed voluntary attention.

Arbitrary attention closely related to speech. IN preschool age voluntary attention formed in connection with the general increasing the role of speech in the regulation of child behavior. The better speech is developed in a preschool child, the higher the level development perception and the earlier it is formed voluntary attention.

It is not enough for a child to understand what he should be attentive, you need to teach him this. Basic mechanisms voluntary attention is laid in preschool childhood. The development of voluntary attention during the preschool period childhood involves the formation of three instructions:

1) the adoption of gradually more complex instructions;

2) retention of instructions during attention throughout the lesson;

3) development self-control skills;

Arbitrary attention characterized by purposefulness.

However, in the learning process, you cannot make everything so interesting that the assimilation of knowledge does not require an effort of will. Voluntary attention is different from involuntary topics, which requires considerable stress from the child. Nevertheless, these willpower efforts may diminish or even disappear altogether. This is observed in those cases when in the course of classes there is an interest in the work itself. Voluntary attention turns into post-voluntary... Availability after spontaneous attention indicatesthat the activity has captured the child and no longer requires significant volitional efforts to maintain it. This is a qualitatively new look attention... From involuntary, it differs in that, which implies a conscious assimilation.

TECHNIQUES AND METHODS FOR DEVELOPING ARBITRARY ATTENTION

PSYCHOGYNASTICS

In the mirror shop

purpose: development of observation, attention, memory. Creation of a positive emotional background. Formation of a sense of confidence, as well as the ability to obey the requirements of another person.

Description. Adult (and then baby) shows the movements that all players must repeat after him.

Instructions: “Now I’ll tell you a story about a monkey. Imagine that you are in a store where there are many mirrors. A man entered with a monkey on his shoulder. She saw herself in the mirrors and thought that these were other monkeys, and began to make faces at them. The monkeys in response made exactly the same faces. She shook her fist at them and shook her from the mirrors. She stamped her foot, and all the monkeys stamped. Whatever the monkey did, everyone else exactly followed its movements. We start to play. I will be a monkey and you will be mirrors. "

Note. At the stage of mastering the game, the role of a monkey is played by an adult. Then the children are given the role of a monkey. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that over time, each child can fulfill this role. It is necessary to stop the game at the peak of interest children, avoiding satiety, transition to self-indulgence. Those may drop out of the game "Mirrors"who are often wrong (this increases motivation to play).

Look at your hands

purpose: development of voluntary attention.

Required material: gramophone (record player) march R. Pauls "Red flowers".

Description. Children, moving in a circle, accurately perform various hand movements shown by an adult or "Commander".

Instructions: “We're going to play now. For the game, we need to choose a commander who will come up with hand movements. First, I will be the commander, and then the one we will choose with the help of the counting-rhyme. All players, standing behind each other in a circle, should begin to move to the music. The first will be the commander - now I will be. All closely follow, what hand movements the commander shows, and repeat them exactly behind him. Let's start playing. "

Note. At the stage of mastering the game, the demonstration of hand movements is carried out by an adult (options for showing hands: hands up, to the sides, on the belt, hands with interlocked fingers extended forward, brought behind the head, etc.). Then the children perform the demonstration of hand movements.

Exercise WHO FASTER?

1) Senior preschoolers it is proposed to cross out any frequently occurring letter, for example, o or e, as quickly and accurately as possible in the column of any text. The success of the test is assessed by the time of its execution and the number of mistakes made, missed letters: the lower the value of these indicators, the higher the success. At the same time, it is necessary to encourage success and stimulate interest.

2) For training switching and distribution attention

task should be changed: it is proposed to cross out one letter with a vertical line, and another with a horizontal line or, upon a signal, alternate the crossing out of one letter with the cross out of the other.

Over time, the task can become more difficult. For example, cross out one letter, underline the other, and circle the third.

The purpose of such training is the development of habitual actions brought to automatism, subordinate to a specific, clearly perceived goal.

Exercise OBSERVATION.

Children are invited to describe in detail the school yard, the way from home to school, from memory, what they have seen hundreds of times. Younger schoolchildren make such descriptions orally, and their classmates complete the missing details. Teens can write down their descriptions and then compare them with each other and with reality. This game reveals connections attention and visual memory.

FINGER EXERCISE

Participants sit comfortably in armchairs or chairs in a circle. Interlace the fingers of the hands on the knees, leaving the thumbs free. On command, they began to slowly rotate their thumbs around each other at a constant speed and in one direction, making sure that they did not touch each other. Concentrate attention on this movement... Stop the exercise at the command Stop. Duration 5-15 minutes. Some participants experience unusual feel: enlargement or alienation of the fingers, an apparent change in the direction of their movement. Someone will feel intense irritation or anxiety. These difficulties are associated with the unusualness of the object of concentration.

FLY exercise.

This exercise requires a board with a 9-grid 3x3 board and a small suction cup. (or a piece of plasticine)... The suction cup plays the role of a trained fly here. The board is placed vertically, and the leader explains to the participants that moving a fly from one cell to another, is happening by giving her commands, which she obediently carries out. One of four possible commands (up, down, right or left) the fly moves according to the command to the adjacent cell. The initial position of the fly is the central cell of the playing field. The teams are given by the participants in turn. The players must, relentlessly watching the movements of the fly, prevent it from leaving the playing field.

After all these explanations, the game itself begins. It is held on an imaginary field, which each of the participants represents in front of him. If someone loses the thread of the game or sees that the fly has left the field, he gives the command Stop and, returning the fly to the central cell, starts the game over.

The fly requires constant concentration from the players, however, after the exercise is well mastered, it can be complicated. By increasing the number of game cells (e.g. up to 4x4) or the number of flies, in the latter case commands are given to each fly separately.

Exercise on development switching ability attention.

Different words are given to the child. He must, by agreement, respond to certain words. For example, when there is a word for an animal, as agreed, stand up. Then the task becomes more complicated, conditional signals are given simultaneously for two groups of words.

Exercise on development of concentration of attention and its stability

The form is given with randomly printed letters. Looking through the letters, the child should find the lost words.

fpsmkunjniaktelmartball

trpmsmokeyshtsymshtsyssorzschntsprjo

kwialipshubywkrtamamaoipsazsh

offmlororvburanstralgpalkani

odrametlakaiogubusygm

Exercises on development of attention distribution

Distribution attention can be trained using the following table. You need to count how many characters are in the table. Should be considered in such okay: One circle, one cross, one square, two crosses ...

An exercise "What toy is missing?"

The child is offered a number items, each item is named and given its characteristics. Then the child closes his eyes, and the adult must remove one of the items, the child's task is to guess what is missing.

Drawing from stories.

The method is becoming more widespread. Its essence is that a short story is read to a child (or an excerpt from the story) with vivid artistic images, always with Vivid IMAGES, and not a simple narration of something. The task of the child is to depict the most vivid images for him on paper with the help of colored pencils. (people, animals, flowers, etc.).

Exercises can be different, the teacher can come up with them independently, depending on the situation, eg:

Count, without using a pencil, how many butterflies, buckets

Find monochrome drawings.

Count the groups items on a general basis.

As you can see, it is not enough just to call the child to attentiveness It is necessary to think over a system of training exercises aimed at correction and development certain qualities arbitrary attention... These exercises should also be done at home with parental guidance.

Attention, as a mental process, has its own stages of development.

The history of the development of attention, like many other mental functions, was tried by L.S. Vygotsky in line with his cultural and historical concept of their formation. He wrote that the history of the child's attention is the history of the development of the organization of his behavior, that the key to the genetic understanding of attention should be sought not inside, but outside the child's personality. The psychologist pointed out that voluntary attention arises from the fact that the people around the child "begin with the help of a number of stimuli and means to direct the child's attention, direct his attention, subordinate him to his power and thereby give the child the means by which he subsequently he himself takes possession of his attention. "

With the help of an adult, the child learns a number of artificial stimuli-means (signs), through which he further directs his own behavior and attention.

The process of age-related development of attention according to the ideas of L.S. Vygotsky was introduced by A.N. Leontiev. In his opinion, "with age, the child's attention improves, but the development of outwardly mediated attention is much faster than its development in general, the more natural attention. At the same time, at school age, a turning point in development occurs, which is characterized by the fact that initially outwardly mediated attention gradually turns into internally mediated, and over time this last form of attention occupies, probably, the main place among all its types.Differences in the characteristics of voluntary and involuntary attention increase, starting from preschool age, and reach a maximum at school age, and then again reveal a tendency to equalization ".

The first stage in the development of attention is the first weeks and months of life. At this time, the appearance of an orientation reflex as an objective, innate sign of the child's involuntary attention.

In the first months of life, the child has only involuntary attention: on the 10-12th day of life, the child initially reacts only to external stimuli. Moreover, this happens only in the case of their abrupt change, for example, during the transition from darkness to bright light, with sudden loud sounds, when the temperature changes, etc. However, some manifestations of attention are also observed when he reaches for the mother's breast, looks for her, begins to fix some objects with his gaze, stops moving when he hears loud sounds. By the end of the first month, he can already follow for several seconds a bright shiny object moving at a distance of about a meter from his eyes.

Starting from the third month, the child becomes more and more interested in objects closely related to his life, i.e. with the one closest to him. From the second half of the year, children show great interest in the surrounding objects, begin to examine them, take them in their mouths, and twirl them in their hands. The ability to manipulate things significantly expands the range of objects of attention and the duration of its retention on any object. His interest in bright and shiny objects is especially noticeable. This allows us to say that his involuntary attention is already sufficiently developed.

By the age of 6 months, both the duration of visual concentration and the distance to the object being fixed increase. The child is attracted not only by bright, moving objects, but also by sounds, and starting from the 2nd month, the duration of concentration on sounds also increases. At 2-3 months of life, the child's attention is most easily attracted by a person and his voice. Concentration on the words of an adult is the result and a necessary condition for the development of listening, and then of the child's speaking. However, at this age, the child's attention is still very unstable. As soon as you show him another object, he drops the first on the floor and reaches for the second. Seeing any thing that interested him, the child begins to demand it, even cries if his desires are not satisfied, but it is enough to show him something else at that moment so that he immediately becomes interested in the new one and forgets what he just demanded ...

The second stage in the development of attention is the emergence of orienting-research activity as a means of the future development of voluntary attention. The child can already concentrate on various subjects for 8-10 minutes.

The third stage in the development of attention is the beginning of the second year of life. Detection of the rudiments of voluntary attention under the influence of an adult's verbal instructions, directing the gaze to an object named by the adult. It can be assumed that the emergence and formation of voluntary attention is associated with the process of raising a child. The people around the child gradually teach him to do not what he wants, but what he needs to do.

The fourth stage in the development of attention is the second or third year of life. A fairly good development of the above initial form of voluntary attention. In the second year of life, thanks to the emergence of the ability to move independently and the acquisition of the ability not only to manipulate an object, but to perform simple actions (for example, taking a sand with a spatula), the objects of attention are a variety of objects used by the child in his activities. The formation of this type of attention occurs mainly under the influence of adults, who begin to make various demands on children (to maintain cleanliness, to use certain things in a certain way, etc.).

In parallel with voluntary attention, involuntary attention develops on the basis of sensory experience. Acquaintance with more and more objects and phenomena, the gradual formation of the ability to understand the simplest relationships, constant conversations with parents, walks with them, games in which children amaze adults, manipulating toys and other objects - all this enriches the child's experience, and together thus develop his interests and attention.

The fifth stage in the development of attention is four and a half to five years. The emergence of the ability to direct attention under the influence of complex instructions from an adult. Preschoolers (4-5 years old) sometimes display intense and sustained attention, subordinate to the activities they perform. They can play a game of interest to them for a long time, listen carefully to the stories of adults, however, even in these cases, their attention is still characterized by significant distraction if other objects of interest to them begin to act on them. A 4–5 year old child, for example, listens to a fairy tale attentively, his eyes burn with lively interest, even his mouth is open in surprise, but then playing children rush into the room, and the child’s thoughts are immediately distracted from the fairy tale. All this suggests that preschool children are not yet able to deliberately maintain attention for a long time in the same direction. So, in one experiment, children at the age of 5 were asked to indicate in a picture which of a group of children skating on a skating rink had lost a mitten. Many of the children did not cope with this task, as their attention was constantly distracted by other objects drawn in the picture. They could not concentrate on the task assigned to them and consider in accordance with it the hands of the children depicted in the picture.

In preschool age, the scope of attention expands and its stability increases, and voluntary attention is formed. The expansion of the scope of attention is manifested in the fact that a child of older preschool age can already perceive more than one object, however, in 4-6-year-old children, the amount of attention is still insufficient to distinguish complex or hardly distinguishable objects from each other (for example, alphabetic or digital characters).

Play is of great importance for the development of voluntary attention. In the process of playing, the child learns to coordinate his movements in accordance with the tasks of the game and direct his actions in accordance with its rules. An increase in the stability of attention is manifested in children in an increase in the duration of games. While one-year-old children retain steady attention on games for an average of 14.5 minutes, for 3-year-olds this time reaches 27 minutes, and 5-6-year-old children can play for 96-100 minutes. If younger preschoolers examine the picture for 6-7 seconds, then older preschoolers spend 12-19 seconds of time on the same pictures. The stability of attention is especially strongly influenced by the individual-typological characteristics of the nervous system of children. In excitable children, the stability of attention is 1.5-2 times less than in restrained, balanced children.

The sixth stage in the development of attention is five to six years. The emergence of an elementary form of voluntary attention under the influence of self-instruction (based on external aids). By the end of preschool age, the child acquires some experience in managing attention, which is one of the indicators of his readiness to learn at school.

The seventh stage in the development of attention is school age. Further development and improvement of voluntary attention, including volitional. In the course of schoolwork, the child learns to discipline. He develops perseverance, the ability to control his behavior. At school age, the development of voluntary attention also goes through certain stages. At school, the student must listen carefully to what is being said in the class, and be attentive not only to what interests him, but also to what is not of interest to him.

In the first grades, the child cannot yet fully control his behavior in the classroom. His involuntary attention still predominates. Therefore, experienced teachers strive to make their classes vivid, capturing the child's attention, which is achieved by periodically changing the form of presentation of educational material. It should be remembered that a child at this age has mostly visual-figurative thinking. Therefore, in order to attract the attention of the child, the presentation of the educational material should be extremely visual.

In high school, the child's voluntary attention reaches a higher level of development. The student is already able to engage in a certain type of activity for a sufficiently long time, to control his behavior. Adolescence is characterized by greater intensity, concentration and stability of attention. His attention is conditioned, in addition to the habit of being attentive, by the emergence of cognitive interests. He wants to do a lot on his own. He has a lot of energy and activity, a lot interests him. But that is precisely why he is easily distracted from work, it is still difficult for him to restrain his desires, which make him seek new impressions.

Adolescence is characterized by the further development of attention, which determines the already high working capacity of the older student. A wide range of cognitive interests at this age ensures the intensive development of involuntary attention, and a conscious attitude to learning, an understanding of the tasks associated with preparing for future activities, helps to voluntarily direct and maintain attention. At this age, students become participants in productive labor, many of them perform tasks with a considerable degree of qualification. They can already work with concentration for quite some time and resist all kinds of distractions. In especially difficult cases (preparation for an exam, an urgent task at work), older students can mobilize their attention for a long time.

Attention - the orientation of a person's mental activity towards objects that have a certain value for the individual.

Attention can be voluntary and involuntary . Involuntary attention arises without conscious volitional efforts, as if by itself.

Arbitrary attentionpresupposes deliberately set tasks, volitional efforts.

The development of voluntary attention, according to psychologists, is the most important condition for the effectiveness of the learning process. The main reason for the poor performance of primary school students is their inattention, which is based on natural physiological processes.

The educational process may not always be fun and easy, which means that the development of voluntary attention must be dealt with purposefully.

Tips for developing voluntary attention

  1. In order for the child to become more attentive, you need to teach him to notice in objects small, seemingly insignificant signs that are actually significant.
  2. The kid must learn to subordinate his attention to a specific task set (by adults or by himself).
  3. Since kids at the age of 6-7 years cannot keep their attention for a long time on monotonous and uninteresting activities for them, play situations should be used more often to develop attention.
  4. It is desirable to prefer the active interaction of the child with the subject under study to simple observations and careful scrutiny. This will significantly increase the stability and concentration of his attention.
  5. The most effective will be regular individual lessons with your baby.
  6. ... Many exercises for the development of memory and attention often duplicate each other, since they are very closely interconnected, therefore, working on the development of attention, you can actively influence the development of memory, and vice versa ...

Games and exercises to develop attention

In elementary school, for greater efficiency of the educational process, it is necessary to develop motivation, i.e. desire to learn. For the development and formation of various mental properties and qualities of a child: attention, memory, imagination, logical thinking, creative abilities at a given age, it is advisable to more often use entertaining and playful material. Games for the development of attention and memory will lead to better results if they are interesting for the child, not too easy and not too hard.

Only a very small set of games and exercises for developing attention is presented to your attention.

  1. Type a set of small objects or pictures, for reading children - words (ranging from the number of 5-6 to 10 or more), ask the child to remember the order of their arrangement and, asking the child to turn away or close his eyes, arbitrarily change their places. The kid must remember and return the original arrangement of objects.
  2. On a piece of paper with text printed in a sufficiently large and clear font, ask the baby to cross out one letter (for example, O), and underline or circle the other (for example, A).
  3. Draw various objects with contour lines, mixing up several images. The child must find them and circle them with different pencil colors. You can complicate the task by asking the kid to compose his own drawing for you with a similar task. You can use only tangled lines (without the image of objects) and ask to trace them with your eyes and find the ends of the lines.
  4. "Mom asked to buy ...", start the game with these words and name any object, the child repeats your word and adds his own, you name all three objects and again add a new name, etc., until someone gets lost and loses ... This exercise also develops memory.
  5. In the center of several geometric shapes, write letters (or some simple objects). Then ask the baby to recreate them from memory in empty shapes.
  6. In any public place (at a bus stop, in a cinema, in a queue at a store), you can play this game with your baby. Choose an object for close examination for 3-5 seconds, then turn away and describe it in as much detail as possible. The child controls you. Then you change places with him: now he describes, and you control the correctness of his answer. The one that the description is most complete and accurate wins. (Sometimes you need to lose, but it is very natural that the kid does not suspect a trick)
  7. On a small square map of 9 cells, "launch" a spider into any of the cells, the path of which must be tracked by the child's eyes according to your commands ("up", "down", "left", "right"; from 3 to 7-10 commands) ... At the end of the path, the baby must show where the spider is. Then change roles with the baby.
  8. Arrange the numbers in a free order on a square map of 9-15 cells. The child must find and show them in ascending or descending order.
  9. "Confusion". Together with the baby, you perform light gymnastic exercises: “arms forward, up, to the sides, forward, up, to the sides ... Then you start to confuse the baby, showing one command, and calling another (for example: say“ up ”and show“ to the sides "The child should only follow verbal commands.

You can find many such games in special literature or come up with yourself. It is important that your games are not intrusive, but that you play in a fun, easy and casual manner. And you need to do it regularly until lasting results appear.

For concentration of attention

(which is important to remember when doing homework)

  • While preparing homework, the child should not be allowed to have a TV, radio or conversation next to him. Any quiet monotonous noise is less distracting than articulate speech that makes you listen.
  • A strong smell of food can also distract attention from lessons, especially if the baby is hungry.
  • Absolute silence is also not conducive to focused mental work. For a better concentration of attention, you can turn on quiet, calm music. Any natural stimuli, such as the rustling of leaves, the ticking of a clock, the muffled sounds of the street outside the window, only contribute to focusing attention.

“What are you inconsiderate!”, “You are always in the clouds”, “What are you only thinking about ?!”

How often do we say this to our children! It seems to us that children do not know how to concentrate attention, we consider them absent-minded. But let's think and once again say our reproaches, but this time mentally. How is it? Is the answer obvious? Of course! It turns out that the child is focused, only his attention is directed to things that are more significant for him (and not for you).

Attention is different

Attention - This is a process in which the selection of the necessary information and the rejection of unnecessary information.

External attention drawn to objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, to the actions of other people. Such attention can be observed in a child from birth: turning the head towards the sound, focusing the gaze on the mother's face.

“In preschool children, attention is directed to their inner world. When your child suddenly stops and looks at one point, know that at this moment his inner attention reaches its highest point. We take this moment for absent-mindedness.

Three kinds of attention

There are also three main types of attention: involuntary, voluntary, post-voluntary.

Involuntary attention arises by itself, without the child's efforts aimed at its emergence and preservation. Everything bright, noisy arouses interest, but not for long: and as soon as the object becomes ordinary, involuntary attention is lost.

Arbitrary attention it is necessary for the child to do not what he wants, but what he needs, perhaps sacrificing another interesting activity. Psychologists believe: the better the speech of a preschool child is, the earlier voluntary attention is formed. Its development is facilitated by various activities with the child, games according to the rules, in which the adult is directly involved, showing the need for such attention.

If the child is fond of playing or performing a task, he no longer needs to make an effort to concentrate, and voluntary attention turns into after-voluntary ... Here, signs of involuntary and voluntary types of attention are combined.

Properties of attention

Also, the attention of a preschooler has the following properties: volume, stability, concentration, selectivity, distribution, switchability.

Volume attention is characterized by the number of objects that the child can follow. By the age of six, a child is able to simultaneously perceive not one object (as at four or five years old), but three, and with sufficient completeness and detail. The amount of attention is narrowed if the child sees objects for the first time. At the same time, the bright appearance or size of objects at the age of 6 becomes less important than at 3-4 years.

Sustainability shows how long the child can focus on an object or activity. It is believed that by the age of 5-6, children can hold attention for up to 2 hours, depending on the type of activity - a game or a monotonous, boring activity.

Concentration attention shows how intensely the child can focus on the object, whether he is able to resist distractions.

“Most of the time, concentration in preschoolers is low and it is very important to develop it. There are special exercises for this. Here is one of them. Try learning a poem with your child. In this case, learn the first quatrain with a very weak sound of the TV or radio, memorizing the second quatrain, slightly increase the volume. Memorize the last quatrain with a loud enough sound.

Selectivity attention allows the child to focus on a specific part of the object, which helps him to successfully solve the problem.

Distribution means the ability to pay equal attention to several objects, to perform several different actions without errors.

Switchability attention contributes to the rapid switching from one type of activity to a completely different one, while the child experiences a certain nervous tension, which becomes less pronounced with age.

Usually in preschool age, distribution and switchability are not sufficiently developed, therefore, emphasis should be placed on them during classes with a child. In this case, one should take into account the personal characteristics of the baby and not demand the impossible from him.

It is important that the child expands the possibilities of his attention, without experiencing great nervous tension, then curiosity, thirst for knowledge and liveliness of thinking will greatly help him in future school life.