Introduction to abstract logical thinking. Stages of development of thinking

What is abstract thinking and why is it needed?

In the scientific concept, abstraction is the mental separation of some properties and characteristics of an object from the object itself, as it is written in the explanatory dictionary of the Russian language” (edited by D.N. Ushakov). Remember the film “Chapaev”: where should the commander be during an attack? Potatoes laid out on the table symbolize the location of the troops. They are completely different from a commander going on an attack or an army, but nevertheless they successfully cope with their task - they symbolize the properties and characteristics of certain objects.

The object and the symbols that designate or define it are different things, and yet, when you hear the word “cow,” you imagine a large, horned, cloven-hoofed, “milk-bearing” animal, and not a gray, striped, clawed, meowing animal.

Abstract thinking is inseparable from mathematicians and physicists, poets and writers, musicians and composers. Any creativity requires abstract thinking, that is, manipulation with symbols. And if you want to develop your child’s creative abilities, then you need to start with the development of abstract thinking.

Some are inclined to believe that abstract thinking is like an ear for music: it either exists or it doesn’t. An innate gift. And its development is practically impossible, just as it is impossible for someone who lacks an ear for music to become a composer.

In extreme cases, persistent exercises for the development of abstract thinking can give some temporary results, but as soon as you stop them, everything immediately returns to normal.

But here’s the thing: it turns out that all children are born with an excellent ear for music. And if a five-year-old child is found to lack it, then it was not a bear who stepped on his ear at birth, but throughout the five years of his life, musical development occurred in the opposite direction: from excellent musical ear to “bear-like.” And if you concentrate almost immediately after the birth of a child on the development of his musical abilities, then by the age of five he will be a potential Chaliapin or Caruso.

So abstract thinking can be developed; every child has its germs, and they are absolutely viable. But they are like plants. Without proper care they will simply wither away. But everyone knows that if the plant is completely dry, then no amount of watering or care will produce results.

The simplest game to develop abstract thinking is to imagine what a cloud looks like. Clouds, fortunately, are absolutely accessible and free. And they offer many different pictures without requiring any effort (well, except maybe raising your head). A cloud can look like a dragon, a knight, a castle, puffs of smoke, a piece of cotton candy, a flower... There are an infinite number of forms. By looking at clouds from the point of view of symbols and their manipulation, rather than from the point of view of meteorology (it looks like it's going to rain!), the child develops abstract thinking.

By the way, the dialogue between Winnie the Pooh and Piglet from the Soviet cartoon is also a vivid example of abstract thinking. The bees were offered an excellent logical chain of symbols: a “cloud” in the face of Winnie the Pooh, Piglet’s umbrella, and even corresponding statements (“I am a cloud, a cloud, a cloud, and not a bear at all...”, “It seems like it’s going to rain!” ). The only problem is that the bees refused to think in symbols and preferred specifics. But that is another story.

There is a game that children almost never get tired of, and at the same time develops abstract thinking perfectly: shadow theater. What is a shadow if not a real abstraction? She is not an object, but only its symbol. But you can play with this symbol, unlike clouds - you can only watch them.

All you need for this game: a lamp, a sheet and a set of cardboard figures. You can make the figures yourself, it’s not too difficult.

Various shadow plays are performed. Any children's fairy tale is a ready-made script that requires only “actors.” Moreover, “actors” can be multifaceted. The bear from the fairy tale about Masha and the Three Bears will perfectly cope with the role in the fairy tale about Teremka. The tower itself will perfectly depict a hut in any other fairy tale. The wolf is Little Red Riding Hood, the Seven Little Goats, and the dog in “Turnip.”

Another interesting exercise is shadows on the wall. The symbol and what it symbolizes. The shadow cast by the hands takes on the shape of completely different objects. The child no longer sees hands, but a flying bird, a barking dog, a hare, and so on.

This shadow “theater” can be continued on the street. What kind of shadow will you get if you raise your arms above your head? How to make a shadow-hare? Shadow tree? Chinese pagoda?

Offer your child abstractions, invite him to create abstractions himself. Play with clouds and shadows. Maybe your future Pushkin is growing up. Or Lobachevsky. Help him grow up.

Abstract thinking in a child must be developed; this will not only help him in learning, but will also allow him to identify hidden talents. What methods are the most effective and can they be used at home?

Abstract thinking is responsible for several areas in a child’s life; it develops creativity, imagination and helps to look at any problem from a new perspective. How to help a child discover his abilities? Develop abstract thinking.

What is abstract thinking?

If thinking is a human cognitive activity, then abstract thinking is the process of exploring and recognizing the world, which:

• Relies on complex forms and abstract concepts, uses metaphors and comparisons.
• Makes it possible to draw conclusions on a general basis and based on existing experience.
• Considers any element of the research object as a separate research object.

That is, self-development, curiosity, and interest in everything new are provoked by precisely this type of thinking.

The brain develops most actively between the ages of two and eleven years. But in order to maintain mental alertness, the brain needs to be trained regularly until old age, then the speed of thinking can be increased by 4 times.

A simple example: a child has a toy car, he sees a car on the street and says “bibika” or any other word that identifies a car. That is, he remembered what his toy looked like, conducted a comparative analysis and made a conclusion based on general features.

How does abstract thinking affect a child’s development?

If you watch your child for some time, you will notice that he regularly immerses himself in his own fantasy world. Games, conversations with objects or plants, stories and fantasies are abstract thinking in action, without it a child simply cannot develop harmoniously.

To develop abstract thinking, you need to offer your child as many new activities and experiences as possible.

This type of thinking helps a son or daughter find himself in creativity, and mathematical abilities up to a certain age are based on the ability to imagine numbers and their interaction. Then, developed abstract thinking will be responsible for the ability to do several things at the same time, cope with difficult situations, and find solutions to the most complex problems.

Three effective methods for developing abstract thinking

Whatever method of development of your child you choose, you need to remember that it will give results only with regular training and constant interaction with the child.

Association game

The simplest method that can be used in everyday life. Ask your child to make associations with everything he sees or hears. For example, what does that little cloud look like? And this green car? Do you hear the bird chirping, what do you think it looks like? If your child likes the game, then with regular practice, in a few weeks you will notice how much better he has become to perceive the world around him, build cause-and-effect relationships and absorb information.

Shadow play

This technique is somewhat similar to an association game. Place a lamp or candle so that your hands cast a shadow on the wall. Fold your palms into various shapes (bunny, dog, eagle) and ask your baby to guess what you are showing; tell stories about this character. You can also use figures cut out of paper.

To develop abstract thinking, both hemispheres need to be activated regularly, and exercises create new neural networks in the child’s brain

Mental arithmetic

A more serious, but very effective technique. It is recommended to start classes at 5 years old, because at this age the child can already perceive the required amount of information and concentrate for the required time.

Mental arithmetic is a special principle of counting that helps to use both hemispheres of the brain at the same time. This training allows you to develop abstract thinking much more intensely than any other methods. In addition to increasing the speed of perception and processing of information, MA also provides a very high speed of mental calculation. There are several schools in Belarus that not only teach children the principles of MA, but also guarantee quick and impressive results.

Do you want to learn more about ways to develop abstract thinking and get new information about the development and upbringing of a child? Come in our blog, it contains not only popular methods for developing the intellectual abilities of children, used all over the world, but also practical advice on their use.

What is abstract thinking and why is it needed? “Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language” (edited by D.N. Ushakov) states that in the scientific concept, abstraction is the mental separation of some properties and characteristics of an object from the object itself. Remember the film “Chapaev”: where should the commander be during an attack? Potatoes laid out on the table symbolize the location of the troops. They are completely different from a commander going on an attack or an army, but nevertheless they successfully cope with their task - they symbolize the properties and characteristics of certain objects.

The object and the symbols that designate or define it are different things, and yet, when you hear the word “cow,” you imagine a large, horned, cloven-hoofed, “milk-bearing” animal, and not a gray, striped, clawed, meowing animal. Abstract thinking is inseparable from mathematicians and physicists, poets and writers, musicians and composers. Any creativity requires abstract thinking, that is, manipulation with symbols. And if you want develop in a child creative abilities, then you need to start with the development of abstract thinking.

Some are inclined to believe that abstract thinking is like an ear for music: it either exists or it doesn’t. An innate gift. And its development is practically impossible, just as it is impossible for someone who lacks an ear for music to become a composer. In extreme cases, persistent exercises for the development of abstract thinking can give some temporary results, but as soon as you stop them, everything immediately returns to normal.

But here’s the thing: it turns out that all children are born with an excellent ear for music. And if a five-year-old child is found to lack it, then it was not a bear that stepped on his ear at birth, but all five years of his life musical development happened in the opposite direction: from an excellent musical ear to a “bearish” one. And if you concentrate almost immediately after the birth of a child on the development of his musical abilities, then by the age of five he will be a potential Chaliapin or Caruso.

So abstract thinking can be developed; every child has its germs, and they are absolutely viable. But they are like plants. Without proper care they will simply wither away. But everyone knows that if the plant is completely dry, then no amount of watering or care will produce results.

The simplest game that develops abstract thinking is what a cloud looks like. Clouds, fortunately, are absolutely accessible and free. And they offer many different pictures without requiring any effort (well, except maybe raising your head). A cloud can look like a dragon, a knight, a castle, puffs of smoke, a piece of cotton candy, a flower... There are an infinite number of forms. By looking at clouds from the point of view of symbols and their manipulation, rather than from the point of view of meteorology (it looks like it's going to rain!), the child develops abstract thinking.

By the way, the dialogue between Winnie the Pooh and Piglet from the Soviet cartoon is also a vivid example of abstract thinking. The bees were offered an excellent logical chain of symbols: a “cloud” in the face of Winnie the Pooh, Piglet’s umbrella, and even corresponding statements (“I am a cloud, a cloud, a cloud, and not a bear at all...”, “It seems like it’s going to rain!” ). The only problem is that the bees refused to think in symbols and preferred specifics. But that is another story.

There is a game that children almost never get tired of, and at the same time develops abstract thinking perfectly: shadow theater. What is a shadow if not a real abstraction? She is not an object, but only its symbol. But you can play with this symbol, unlike clouds - you can only watch them.

All you need for this game: a lamp, a sheet and a set of cardboard figures. You can make the figures yourself, it’s not too difficult.

Various shadow plays are performed. Any children's fairy tale is a ready-made script that requires only “actors”. Moreover, “actors” can be multifaceted. The bear from the fairy tale about Masha and the Three Bears will perfectly cope with the role in the fairy tale about Teremka. The tower itself will perfectly depict a hut in any other fairy tale. The wolf is Little Red Riding Hood, the Seven Little Goats, and the dog in “Turnip”.

Another interesting exercise is shadows on the wall. The symbol and what it symbolizes. The shadow cast by the hands takes on the shape of completely different objects. The child no longer sees hands, but a flying bird, a barking dog, a hare, and so on.

This shadow “theater” can be continued on the street. What kind of shadow will you get if you raise your arms above your head? How to make a shadow-hare? Shadow tree? Chinese pagoda?

Offer your child abstractions, invite him to create abstractions himself. Play with clouds and shadows. Maybe your future Pushkin is growing up. Or Lobachevsky. Help him grow up.

ABSTRACT thinking - highlighting some features and distracting from others, insignificant at the moment or for a given person. Without the development of this type of thinking, it is impossible to become a successful person. Success here means the personal feeling that a person manages to build his life according to his own goals and with his own strength for the benefit of himself and others. Success should not be confused with prestige. Prestige is a socially determined idea of ​​a decent life. It may conflict with a person's spiritual needs. The right to choose is up to the person himself.
Abstract thinking in creativity involves going beyond real data, finding new connections and relationships between objects, and a broad but targeted mobilization of knowledge and experience.

Stages of developing a child’s thinking:

Visually effective (up to 3 years),
- visual-figurative (up to 9 years),
- verbal-logical (abstract) (by the age of 14).

The development of a child’s thinking begins with information presented in the form of a question or task. Parents will find many reasons to communicate with their child in this regard if they realize the importance of abstract thinking for the child’s fate.

Until the age of nine, children live in a magical world; they cannot be rushed to understand reality; everything has its time. And this period is necessary for the development of imagination, fantasy - the basis of human creative activity. It is very interesting for a child to “pick mushrooms on the asphalt”, imagining that he is in the forest; “to feed mother, according to her order, with various foods from river sand,” his ideas will flow if his parents support him in play activities.

By the way, a child under 9 years old is not yet ready for freedom of choice and responsibility for choice. If adults create such circumstances for a child, he experiences psychological anxiety and uncertainty. The need for protection is strongest at this age, so the child needs strong parents to guide him.

To develop your thinking, it is useful to take your time to answer some of the “whys” yourself. child, but ask “What do you think?” and guide his thinking. As a result, preschool children show an early interest in games that develop intelligence and love to solve riddles, answer tricky questions, and create them themselves. There is no need to overload a child with different information; it is better to teach him to think about what is available to him at his age. Abstract thinking at this age should be based on visual and figurative thinking, on the child’s acquired life experience.

Starting from the age of nine, you can directly ask about his moods, desires and needs, opportunities and consequences of their implementation - this is how the experience of freedom of choice is acquired.

Teenagers from 12 to 14 years old, it’s time to ask what they think about any problem and what ways they see to solve it. At this age it is already possible to make decisions on your own. You just need to make it clear to the teenager that making mistakes is normal. By correcting them, a person becomes wiser.

This is the norm of mental development of the individual. But teachers have to deal with various intellectual deviations from the norm. Many children are “stuck” at the level of visual-effective thinking. Therefore, in learning they can only use rote learning and relatively accurate reproduction of the information received from the teacher. This is largely the fault of parents who do not want to be educated in matters of child development. We cannot come to terms with this situation, and therefore we submit our judgments about COGNITION to the judgment of the readers of ProzaRu.

The ideal in knowledge is WISDOM. and not ERUDITIA, which is based, rather, on memory as a property of the natural mind. Wisdom combines all the spiritual qualities of a person (sometimes in the absence of an official certificate of education).

Yuri Okunev School

Hello friends. Yuri Okunev is with you.

Do you have a good imagination? Can you, for example, write a story right away like this? Or write a poem? Were you good at solving equations at school? Today we’ll talk about how to develop abstract thinking. Let's look at what this type of thinking is and how it is formed.

From childhood we are taught to think, analyze, and draw conclusions. It is believed that it is the ability to think and make logical conclusions that distinguishes a person from any other creature living on Earth. What is thinking?

On Wikipedia we find the following answer:

This is already more clear. This means that we are dealing with a mental process responsible for understanding the world.
How do we understand the world? There are two ways:

1. Through sensory awareness aimed at the external signs of objects - color, size, shape. The instruments are the senses - smell, touch, vision, hearing.
2. Through objective awareness - through one’s own conclusions, by penetrating into the essence of things.

In the second case, it makes sense to talk about the development of thinking abilities.

Imagination is the basis of thinking

The leading role here is given to the imagination. Let's look at Wikipedia again:

In simple terms, imagination is our fantasy. Thanks to him, we can imagine a fly the size of an elephant; rap dancing elephant; a rapper the size of a fly. We can move into the past, replay events that have already happened, or safely travel into the future in our thoughts, inventing a new reality.

Three stages of development

From birth to adulthood, a person goes through three stages of thinking development:

• Effective;
• Figurative;
• Boolean.

It can be represented like this:

Types of thinking	Visually effective	Visual-figurative	Abstract-logical
Formation period	Child under one year old	From 3 to 7 years	Child over 7 years old
What is?	Manipulation with objects, their perception by the senses.	Operations on images, secondary characteristics of objects.	Operates with what cannot be represented in the form of an image - logical judgments and conclusions.
Sphere of human activity	Production	Music, visual arts	Literature, science

Thus, it can be argued that the presence of abstract thinking is a sign of mature intelligence.

Three shapes

There are three known forms of abstract thinking: concept, judgment and inference.
What are these forms?

When we say: “autumn”, “rain”, “street”, we are dealing with concepts. If we say: “It’s raining outside” or “It’s always cold when it rains”, this will be a judgment. And, finally, a statement like: “It’s cold outside” can be called an inference, since it draws a general conclusion from the two previous statements.

Why do we need this?

In fact, abstract thinking is formed in early childhood and is constantly present in our lives. Little children love to fantasize and come up with all sorts of tall tales. It turns out that they develop abstract (or figurative) thinking, learn to abstract (move away) from the object itself and perform operations with its properties.

Later, when the child grows up and goes to school, this skill will be useful to him to master mathematical skills. For example, solve the problem: “Vasya has 6 candies in his pocket. He gave two of them to Petya. How much is left?".

Where else is abstract thinking used? Anywhere:

• In philosophy;
• In the art of writing when creating images and plot lines;
• In engineering – modeling of new processes;
• In management psychology.

Almost in any area of ​​our activity.
The pearl, the highest point of development of abstract thinking, is intuition.

So, we found out that in order to achieve good results in increasing intelligence and to be a successful person, you need to devote enough time to the development of abstract thinking. How can it be developed?

Methods for adults

In adults, thinking is usually already formed. With age, it becomes more and more difficult to perceive new knowledge and new material - thinking loses its flexibility. The following exercises are designed to help you cope with this process. Develop your creativity and open-mindedness.

Exercises for children

Every child is naturally inquisitive. This means that a child’s thinking develops much faster than that of an adult. It is important to help the child move from actions with specific objects to more abstract concepts, to broaden his horizons. Developed imaginative thinking is the key to successful schooling.

1. Together with your children, come up with strange, unusual names and titles. Find an interesting picture on the Internet and try to find at least 3 catchy names for it.
2. Do dramatizations. Create costumes for the characters using available materials. Play shadow theater.
3. Solve anagrams, puzzles, puzzles. Come up with unrealistic phrases: “low skyscraper”, “round house”, “ringing silence” and so on.
4. Take a blank landscape sheet and spill some ink or gouache paint on it. The result will be a blot. Together with your child, turn this shapeless spot into a drawing. For example, in a smiling face.

Summarize

Developed abstract thinking allows you to solve many problems much easier and faster (especially tasks of rearranging furniture :)). Instead of looking for your own way out in each specific case, you can use general conclusions and ready-made templates for solutions. This expresses creativity and efficiency of thinking. Therefore, don’t be lazy and set aside time for studying, at least a couple of minutes a day.

You can find even more exercises for developing thinking in the online service for developing intelligence B rainapps. The game form of tasks allows you to very quickly improve the intelligence of both adults and children. Convenient statistics and an attractive interface make classes even more fun.

That's all.
I hope you liked the article. Write in the comments what role imaginative thinking plays in your life, share the information with your friends on social networks.

See you again! Yours, Yuri Okunev.