Development of imagination in preschool children

Development of imagination in preschool children. It is impossible to imagine a child without imagination. The world of children differs significantly from that of adults because children are capable of inventing and thinking outside the box. The ability to imagine helps develop creative abilities, find ways out of difficult situations, and it is easier to adapt in real life if you direct your imagination in the right direction.

Features of the development of creative imagination in a preschool child

The baby takes his first steps towards the ability to use his imagination at the age of three. Play becomes part of the child, wherever he is: at home, on a walk, visiting, on a trip. During this period, the child begins to understand that one and the same object can play the role of several, if you use your imagination. Three- and four-year-old children begin to tell fairy tales - this awakens their previously dormant imagination. But they don't know how to plan. It is difficult to find out from such a child what he is going to draw if the child took pencils and paper. With the help of imagination, the drawing, of course, will be born, but the image of the future “picture” will be built in the process.

Until the age of five, preschool children still do not know how to direct their imagination, but at five or six years old they are already good inventors who can consciously decide what they want to play, what they need to draw, what craft they want to make. Once the goal is set, the work begins. Often, in play, children try to embody the experience they have gained, their impressions of watching a cartoon or a play, or some life scene.

Often children create their own special world if something in the real world does not suit them: difficult relationships with peers or adults, including parents; phobias that the child tries to fight in a self-invented way; problems that are easier to solve in a fantasy world.

In any case, the development of imagination is very important for a child. This is one of the levers with which a little person learns to interact with the world.

Article “Development of imagination in children of senior preschool age”

FEATURES OF IMAGINATION DEVELOPMENT IN SENIOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN: THEORETICAL ASPECT

Petrukhina T.A.

TSPU named after. L.N. Tolstoy

Tula, Russia

FEATURES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN OF PRESCHOOL AGE: A THEORETICAL ASPECT

Petrukhina T.A.

Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University

Tula, Russia

The relevance of the problem of developing children's imagination lies in the fact that this mental process is an integral component of any form of creative activity of the child, as well as his behavior in general. Imagination is a special property of the human psyche, which stands apart from other mental processes and occupies an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory. Almost all human culture, material and spiritual, is a product of the imagination and creative activity of people. Thanks to imagination, a person creates, intelligently plans and manages his activities. It is this ability that needs special care in terms of development. Presumably, imagination develops intensively in childhood.

If during this period you do not engage in the development of imagination, subsequently an active decline in this function occurs.

Imagination is the ability of consciousness to create images, ideas and manipulate them; plays a key role in the following mental processes: modeling, planning, creativity, play, human memory. A type of creative imagination is fantasy. Imagination is one of the forms of mental reflection of the world. The most traditional point

vision is the definition of imagination as a process (A.V. Petrovsky and M.G. Yaroshevsky, V.G. Kazakov and L.L. Kondratyeva, etc.). Imagination is a mental process consisting of the creation of new images (ideas) by processing the material of perceptions and ideas obtained in previous experience (M.V. Gamezo and I.A. Domashenko).

In Russian psychology, along with other mental functions, imagination acts as a reflection of the surrounding reality, being social in nature. L.S. Vygotsky believes that imagination is connected with reality, and points out various forms of connection between imagination and reality. The first form is

that any image of the imagination is built from elements of reality and past human experience. The second form is the connection between a product of imagination and a phenomenon of reality. The third form characterizes the connection

emotions. the fourth form of connection between imagination and reality is that the product of imagination may not correspond to a really existing object, but, having acquired material embodiment,

begins to really exist in the world and influence other things. The main line of development of imagination is its gradual

subordination to conscious intentions, the implementation of certain plans, which becomes possible at primary school age in connection with the formation of these psychological formations. The arbitrariness of imagination is manifested in the ability of a primary school student to consciously set goals for action, deliberately seek and find effective means and methods of achieving them.

So, imagination is a form of mental reflection of the world, a special form of the psyche that only a person can have. This is a mental process consisting of the creation of new images (ideas) by processing the material of perceptions and ideas obtained in previous experience. It is continuously connected with

human ability to change the world, transform reality and create new things.

Imagination depends on many factors: age, mental development and developmental characteristics (the presence of any disorder of psychophysical development), individual characteristics of the individual (stability, awareness and focus of motives; evaluative structures of the image of “I”; characteristics of communication; degree of self-realization and assessment of one’s own activities ; character traits and temperament), and, what is very important, on the development of the learning and education process.

A child’s experience develops and grows gradually; it is deeply unique compared to the experience of an adult. The child’s attitude to the environment, which with its complexity or simplicity, its traditions and influences stimulates and directs the creative process, is again completely different. The interests of a child and an adult are different and therefore it is clear that a child’s imagination works differently than an adult’s.

Imagination plays a greater role in the life of a child than in the life of an adult. It allows a preschooler to explore the world around him, performing a gnostic function. It fills gaps in his knowledge, serves to unite disparate impressions, creating a holistic picture of the world.

The baby's growing cognitive needs are largely satisfied with the help of imagination. It seems to remove the distance between what the child can perceive and what is inaccessible to his direct perception. Child imagines lunar landscape, flight

rocket, tropical plants. That is, imagination significantly expands the boundaries of his knowledge. In addition, it allows the preschooler to “participate”

events that do not occur in everyday life. This is "participation"

enriches his intellectual, emotional, moral experience, allows him to more deeply understand the surrounding, natural, objective and social reality.

A child’s imagination begins to develop quite early; it is weaker than that of an adult, but it occupies more space in his life.

Stages of imagination development in preschool children.

Until the age of 3, children’s imagination exists within other mental processes, where its foundation is laid. At the age of three, the formation of verbal forms of imagination occurs. Here imagination becomes an independent process. At first, the imagination is inextricably linked with the object, which serves as an external support. So, in the game, a child of 3-4 years old cannot rename an object if he does not act with it. He imagines a chair as a ship or a cube as a saucepan when he works with them. The substitute item itself must be similar to the item being replaced. It is the toys and objects—the attributes—that lead the child to one or another plot of the game. For example, I saw a white coat, began to play hospital, saw scales, and became a “salesman.” Gradually, the imagination begins to rely on objects that are not at all similar to those being replaced. Thus, older preschoolers use natural materials (leaves, cones, pebbles, etc.) as play materials. The role of visual support in the reconstruction of a literary text is especially pronounced. This is the illustration, without which the youngest preschooler cannot recreate the events described in the fairy tale. For older preschoolers, the words of the text begin to evoke images without visual support. Gradually, the need for external supports disappears.

At 4-5 years old, the child begins to plan, to make a mental plan for upcoming actions, primarily in play, manual labor, storytelling and retelling. At the age of 5 years, dreams about the future appear and specific planning, which can be called stepwise, begins. Dreams are situational, often unstable, caused by events that caused an emotional response in children. Imagination turns into a special intellectual activity aimed at transforming the surrounding world. The support for creating an image is now not only a real object, but also ideas expressed in words. Begins

rapid growth of verbal forms of imagination, closely related to the development of speech and thinking, when a child composes fairy tales, upside-down stories, and ongoing stories. The preschooler's imagination remains largely involuntary. The subject of fantasy becomes something that greatly excited, captivated, and amazed him: a fairy tale he read, a cartoon he saw, a new toy.

6 - 7 years old imagination is active. Recreated images appear in various situations, characterized by meaningfulness

specificity. Elements of creativity appear. External support suggests a plan, and the child arbitrarily plans its implementation and selects the necessary means.

The increase in the focus of imagination throughout preschool childhood can be concluded from the increase in the duration of children’s play on the same topic, as well as from the stability of roles. Younger preschoolers play for 10 - 15 minutes. External factors lead to the appearance of side lines in the plot, and the original intent is lost. They forget to rename items and start using them according to their actual functions. At 4 - 5 years old the game lasts

40-50 minutes, and at 5 - 6 years old children can play enthusiastically for several hours and even days.

When developing a child’s imagination, it is important to remember that the material for his fantasies is the entire life around him, all the impressions he receives, and these impressions must be worthy of the bright world of childhood.

The creative nature of imagination depends on the extent to which children master the methods of transforming impressions used in play and artistic activity. The means and techniques of imagination are intensively mastered in preschool age. Children do not create new fantastic images, but simply transform already known ones, using such imagination techniques as anthropomorphization, agglutination, hyperbolization and others. Mastering the techniques and means of creating images leads to the fact that the images themselves become more diverse, rich, emotional,

permeated with aesthetic, cognitive feelings, personal meaning.

So, let us highlight the main features of the development of imagination in preschool age: · imagination acquires an arbitrary character, presupposing the creation of a plan, its planning and implementation; · it becomes a special activity, turning into fantasy; the child masters the techniques and means of creating images; imagination moves to the internal plane, and there is no need for visual support for creating images.

Thus, the child’s imagination is manifested and formed in the process of activity. Specific preschool activities are important in its development: playing, designing, drawing, modeling, etc.

Adults play an important role in shaping a child’s imagination. The teacher creates conditions for children to express their imagination. In the process of organizing and directing children’s activities, he enriches the ideas of preschoolers, teaches them effective techniques for manipulating images of the imagination, using special exercises that stimulate children’s imagination, etc. It is important that the content and form of communication between an adult and a student create an opportunity for the child to enter the “zone of proximal development” and contribute to the realization of his potential in creative activity.

Types of imagination

Experts distinguish several types of imagination.

Creative

Human consciousness allows you to compose incredible images, without relying on knowledge and experience. Such imagination, with its further development, can even become the basis for a person’s future profession related to writing.

Recreating

This type of imagination is based on existing knowledge; images that the child became acquainted with in classes, in communication with relatives and friends appear from memory and are developed.

Wild fantasy

Uncontrolled imagination, where reality and fantasy replace each other. The child constantly thinks about something and declares that all this actually happened.

Methods and techniques for developing imagination in preschool children

Since healthy imagination is important for the harmonious development of a child, adults should help develop this imagination correctly.

There are several effective techniques. They are based on the development of the child’s creative abilities, as well as his mental activity.

This:

Applied activities,
Literature classes,
Didactic games,
Development of horizons,
Development of tactile abilities,
Art, music, dance classes.

Applied activities are one of the methods not only to awaken a child’s imagination, but also to direct him in the right direction. So, drawing or modeling classes will help teach your child to come up with and implement an idea. Construction will make it possible to create something fantasy, but this object can already be touched, it can become the object of games. Let the child come up with things that do not exist in the real world, but this is much more interesting. A fictional thing may have characteristics that the author himself gives it.

A good option to develop imagination is fairy tales that the child himself composes. An adult just needs to help, give a start to imagination. Let this be a simple story, the very beginning. And only then the child must figure out what will happen to the characters next, what adventures await them. And if a child comes up with a fairy tale and draws at the same time, clearly showing the plot, even better.

Didactic games play a great role in the development of imagination. An experienced teacher can interest a child by inviting him to study and play at the same time.

So, you can use the following techniques.

Features of the development of creative imagination of older preschoolers

Imagination is inseparable from human creative activity, from his behavior. It is very important to develop creative imagination in older preschool age, since it is then that preparation for schooling occurs and the development of the cognitive functions of the children’s psyche becomes more intense. This fact is confirmed by the studies of psychologists L. S. Vygotsky, V. V. Davydov, V. A. Krutetsky, S. L. Rubinstein, D. B. Elkonin, O. M. Dyachenko and others.

Creative imagination cannot be formed on its own: it develops throughout the child’s life and depends on the conditions of his life, upbringing, and impressions received. Education contributes to the greatest extent to the development of a child’s creative imagination.

Creative imagination helps to create new images that are completely different from those stored in human memory. It is an active cognitive process, the result of which is the emergence of new images and objects of reality, products of activity.

Speaking about the features of the development of the creative imagination of older preschoolers, the following can be noted. This process is close to figurative thinking, but the result of creative imagination is much more unpredictable.

The development of creative imagination in older preschool age must be combined with the development of imaginative thinking, since the majority of children in this age group belong to the artistic type, and not to the thinking type. Imagination develops most effectively in activity, so it is important to include students in subject-based practical activities that are age-appropriate. This should be primarily an educational game.

A child’s creative activity must be positively motivated and have a personal meaning in order for its results to be high. At the same time, the teacher must be friendly to children, constantly interest them, captivate them with new ideas, techniques, elements, the author of which can be both himself and the preschoolers. More often you need to give complex, unusual tasks that require a non-standard solution.

The most productive field of activity in developing the creative imagination of children of senior preschool age should, of course, be considered classes in speech development, fine arts and labor training. The child must not only carry out the teacher’s tasks - draw something or make something from a certain material: paper, polyethylene, natural materials (cones, leaves, pebbles) - but also show a desire to do something himself, becoming interested in this or that material, reception, technique. It is necessary to encourage this desire and support the most constructive proposals of children in the classroom. In the classroom, you can and even need to combine different types of activities: illustration, drawing, modeling, reading and continuing a story or fairy tale. You can depict the main characters of the work you like in various techniques and in different ways, and then arrange an exhibition of works. At the same time, one should not particularly highlight any work, but rather praise all children for their efforts and activity in order to stimulate their further creative activity.

It is advisable to include in classes individual exercises and tasks aimed at developing creative imagination. For example, you can think about what animal children associate themselves with, ask them to come up with an ornament, draw a non-existent animal or plant, give it a name, name, and so on. To this end, the educator must monitor publications in special periodicals, improve his skills and broaden his horizons. In addition, such exercises should be included in the content of classes regularly, and not from time to time, since the effect is achieved with their constant use.

There is no need to limit children’s desire to be different from everyone else in some way, to be original, since this is also a manifestation of creativity. It is necessary, on the contrary, to create the most comfortable conditions for children’s activities, which will become creative only when there is a greater degree of independence in it. Accordingly, then the creative imagination of older preschoolers will begin to develop.

It is necessary to skillfully stimulate the child to express his creative imagination, and not force him, otherwise all the results obtained will be the same and creativity will not work. It is necessary to observe children, note who has a greater inclination to work with this or that material, in this or that area. For example, noticing that some children have the ability to compose interesting, coherent stories, you can give them the task of composing a story based on a picture, another group of students can be asked to create a series of illustrations for the invented text to make a small book, one of the students can come up with a game based on what was invented and drawn. This stage - collective creativity - is no less significant, since as a result it can result in the appearance of a very original product that is relevant for the entire group.

No less important is the development of the creative imagination of older preschoolers outside the preschool educational institution, at home, in the family. The development of children’s creative imagination and fantasy depends on what books parents read to their children, what types of creativity they engage in together, even on how they answer their children’s questions.

Thus, adults play the main role in the development of the creative imagination of children of senior preschool age. It is necessary to develop it consistently, systematically, paying great attention to the personality and individuality of each student.

Literature:

1. Anufrieva G., Vdovkina S., Ogorodnova O. Imagination and creativity // Preschool education. - 2008. - No. 12. - 120 p.

2. Vygotsky L. S. Imagination and creativity in childhood. Psychological essay: A book for teachers. — M.: Enlightenment. - 1991. - 198 p.

3. Poluyanov Yu. A. Imagination and abilities. ‒ M.: Knowledge. - 2003. - 155 p.

4. Subbotina L. Yu. Development of children’s imagination: A popular guide for parents and teachers. — Yaroslavl: Academy of Development. - 1997. - 240 p.

Developing imagination through non-traditional drawing

Unconventional drawing methods are unusual, interesting and useful. The child learns to see the miraculous in the most ordinary things. So, he learns that, it turns out, you can draw, for example, with your palms, a comb and a sponge, and not with a brush, with biscuit cream, and not just with paints. This awakens the imagination, the child has a desire to try new and unknown things.

Here are the simplest ways to draw unconventionally:

Drawing with a candle.
Drawing with splashes through a straw.
Drawing with stamps made from bottle caps, sponges, chewed paper.
Finger painting.
Isothread: the thread is dipped into the paint, pressed against the paper, and the resulting print can be expanded into a real design.
Drawing with a comb.
Drawing with a cotton swab.
Children of any development will enjoy drawing this way. Moreover, some methods help in the prevention of certain diseases, as well as in the correction of speech, breathing, and vision.

Development of imagination by means of construction

There are many construction sets on sale that both children and adults enjoy playing with. Of course, there is no need to set complex design tasks for the child. But construction kits with proposed assembly schemes can be the start of an interesting hobby for a child. And if an adult gets involved in the design, then the design itself can turn into a game.

Design helps:

develop spatial imagination,
gain knowledge about shape, size, the first rudiments of knowledge about geometry,
develop fine motor skills, which is useful for the development of thinking,
develop independence, perseverance,
develop imagination.

It will be useful for preschoolers to play with cubes, which will allow them to get a first idea of shape, color, size; mosaic, which teaches you to pay attention to little things; block constructors that create three-dimensional objects for games; Lego, with the help of which children become acquainted with 3D modeling skills.

Development of imagination in older preschoolers

Natalia Stupa

Development of imagination in older preschoolers

The problem of developing the imagination of preschool children attracts the close attention of psychologists and teachers. Modern trends in the development of psychological science and educational practice raise new questions in its study. One of them is the question of individual characteristics of the development of imagination , manifestations of the child’s individuality in his creative activity. In the psychological literature there are different points of view on the origin and development of imagination . Proponents of one of the approaches believe that the genesis of creative processes is associated with the maturation of certain structures (J. Piaget, S. Freud)

.
At the same time, the mechanisms of imagination turned out to be conditioned by characteristics external to this process (
the development of intelligence or the development of the child’s personality ) . Another group of researchers believes that the genesis
of imagination depends on the course of biological maturation of the individual (K. Koffka, R. Arnheim)
.
These authors attributed the components of external and internal factors to the mechanisms of imagination Representatives of the third approach (T. Ribot, A. Ben)
explain the origin and
development of imagination by the accumulation of individual experience, while they were considered as transformations of this experience (associations, accumulation of useful habits)
. In Russian psychology, research devoted to
the development of imagination in preschool children is also occupy a significant place. Most authors connect the genesis of imagination with the development of a child’s play activity (A. N. Leontiev, D. B. Elkonin, etc., as well as with preschool children’s mastery of activities traditionally considered “creative”
: constructive, musical, visual, artistic -literary. S. L. Rubinstein and others devoted their research to the study of the mechanisms
of imagination . However, they practically did not consider the problem of individual characteristics of the development of imagination . THE ESSENCE AND TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL OF IMAGINATION
In the complex structure of the human psyche there is an amazing property - imagination .

What is imagination ? Imagination is the ability, inherent only in humans, to create new images (ideas)

by processing previous experience.
Imagination is often called fantasy. Imagination is the highest mental function and reflects reality. However, with the help of imagination, a mental departure beyond the limits of what is directly perceived is carried out. Its main task is to present the expected result before it is achieved. With the help of imagination, we form an image of an object, situation, or condition that has never existed or does not currently exist.
Being an extremely complex and multifaceted psychological complex, imagination is inextricably linked with the transformative activities of people. Imagination cannot develop in a vacuum . In order to begin to fantasize, a person must see, hear, receive impressions and retain them in memory.

Noting the enormous role of imagination in the most diverse types of transformative human activity, it is impossible not to note that the problem of imagination , despite its centuries-old history, is one of the least studied.

True, in recent years there has been a significant increase in interest in the problem, but it is not possible to talk about achieving unambiguous and established results in all cases. Even in the works of domestic researchers, the coverage of many core issues of the problem is unclear and contradictory. A one-sided approach to their consideration leads some authors to remove the differences between thinking and imagination , to exclude imagination from the creative process, to deny the legitimacy of the very concept , etc. d.

One of the most controversial issues in the problem of imagination remains the question of the nature of that reflective experience that can be used by the subject in his fantastic recombinations.

It turns out that the vast majority of authors, both before and now, associate only the perceptual-figurative impressions of the individual of the imagination Accordingly, imagination is described as a process during which:

- “new images” (M. Vladislavlev, 1881)

;

- “concrete images of things that are never encountered in actual experience” (S. Serebryannikov, 1911)

;

- “new ideas” (A. Dirof, 1911)

- “single images” (B.V. Lavrov, 1912)

- “new images that we have never encountered before

reality" (A. Ya. Zelenskaya, 1915)

;

- “bright, lively, integral images” (P. A. Sokolov, 1915)

;

- “new images that have not yet been the subject of our perception in such a combination” (V. Eruzalem, 1917)

;

- modified representations of “previously perceived objects” (B.V. Belyaev, 1940)

;

- “new ideas” (L. M. Schwartz, 1948)

;

- images of “new objects and phenomena” (A. V. Zaporozhets, 1953)

;

- “new images based on material from past perceptions” (B. M. Teplov, 1951)

— “new images based on existing ones. ideas" (T. T. Egorov, 1952)

- “new ideas that we didn’t have before” (P. A. Rudik, 1955)

;

- “new images based on the processing of memory and perception” (G. A. Fortunatov, A. V. Petrovsky, 1958)

;

- “images of objects that we have not perceived before” (I. P. Ivanov, 1967)

;

- images of objects that a person “did not directly perceive” (B. N. Zaltsman, 1968)

- images, objects, situations, circumstances “by bringing a person’s existing knowledge into new combinations” (V.V. Bogoslovsky, 1981)

- creation of a “new world of thought and form”
(V. G. Belinsky)
This brief selection includes statements by authors who do not interpret the term “image” in a broad generalizing sense, that is, not as a form in which “random and arbitrary” circumstances of personal existence" and transferred to it (being)

internal and essential side, but on the contrary, as a synonym for clarity and specificity.

Supporters of attributing imagination to the sphere of visual-figurative activity have very good reasons for this. Firstly, the origins of such a view are the great Aristotle, who believed that imagination “does not arise apart from sensation,” and “since vision is a sensation primarily, its name is imagination (fantasy)

received from the light (faos, for without light one cannot see.”

Secondly, the lexical and etymological fact that in all European languages “ imagination imagination . Finally, thirdly, this view could not but be facilitated and strengthened by the fact that the most common fantastic constructions in folklore, mythology, religion, and art usually have a visual, figurative, easily imaginable appearance.

The stated considerations are very convincing and therefore the idea of severing the image from the imagination would be as unfounded as an attempt, for example, to refuse to recognize the fact that a person is capable of transforming his impressions into subjectively new combinations.

However, associating only figurative recombination with imagination , one cannot but agree that this gives rise to a number of uncertainties. One of them is that imagination is excluded from those situations of mental activity in which it is not so much visual and figurative representations that dominate, but rather abstract generalizing knowledge or the individual’s emotional and sensory impressions.

A number of researchers have drawn attention to this inconsistency. Therefore, in parallel with narrowly figurative interpretations of imagination , there are also those in which not only perceptual, but also abstract-logical and emotional experience of the subject is associated of imagination

Let us consider the views of several authors who supplemented the figurative activity of the imagination with the possibility of transformation with abstraction. Already T. Ribot outlines an appropriate approach to the problem. Without in any way denying figurative fantastic recombinations, he, at the same time, draws attention to the so-called numerical imagination , about which he writes: “Numerical imagination has nowhere reached such a peak as among the eastern people. They played with numbers with remarkable courage and squandered them with brilliant extravagance... The Hindus outdid all this. They invented enormous units that serve as the basis and material for a fantastic game with numbers” (Quoted from L. S. Vygotsky)

But numerical fantasy does not exhaust all cases of unimaginative transformations. Therefore, developing views consonant with the thoughts of T. Ribot, the famous Russian psychologist V. A. Snegirev defined fantasy as the ability “. to form new combinations from materials given by nature, ideas, images, impressions, or, what is the same, to create.”

Among Soviet psychologists, similar views were actively and energetically propagated by L. S. Vygotsky, who believed that deeper penetration into reality for the purpose of its knowledge and transformation necessarily presupposes a freer attitude of the subject to the products of its mental reflection, a departure from the visible external side of reality, which the subject receives as a result of direct perceptions. Thanks to the departure from the “visible external side of reality,” human imagination becomes the basis of all creative activity.

The rejection of the strictly figurative function of the imagination is to some extent characteristic of S. L. Rubinstein. He even uses the term “abstract imagination ”. the difference between “concrete” and “abstract” imagination in the unequal visual clarity of the images used. ". These can be single, material images, burdened with many details, and typified images, generalized images-schemes, symbols. The difference between “concrete” and “abstract” imagination is the difference between the images with which the imagination . Abstract imagination uses images of a high degree of generality, generalized images-schemes, symbols (in mathematics)

“,” wrote S. L. Rubinstein.

In subsequent years, imagination was characterized by the process of transformation of the figurative and abstract experience of the subject by Yu. A. Samarin (1947, E. I. Ignatiev (1962, N. S. Shabalin (1966, M. V. Matyukhina, K. T. Patrina, E. I. Stepanova (1967, A. A. Bodalev (1982)

. It should be noted that in a number of modern, including psychological, studies, objects are used, the genetic analysis of which provides certain evidence in favor of the position just stated, i.e. in favor of the fact that fantasizing can be carried out both on the basis of figurative and based on the abstract experience of the individual.

Experimental facts about the use of abstract elements in the process of fantasy are presented in the study of A. I. Rozov. In his experiments on the subjects’ selection of words of a given pattern, compliance with the rules of logic and deviations from it took place. The author refers to cases of the second kind as manifestations of fantasy. It is characteristic that the reasons for the transition from thinking to fantasy are explained by the author not by the difference in the initial elements of transformation (abstractions in thinking and images in imagination , but by “the impossibility of following a logical algorithm; fantasy and thinking are not two separate processes, but a single mental activity.” Considering The author’s conclusion about the functional fusion of thinking and imagination into a “single mental activity” is controversial due to the identity of the abstract-logical components that the subjects used in both situations; at the same time, one cannot but recognize his data on the transformation of abstractions into fantastic combinations as very significant.

Defining his research credo, the author emphasizes that “in contrast to the view of W. Wundt, which became widespread at one time and is still recognized by some psychologists, according to which the activity of fantasy is thinking in images. We believe that a fantasizing subject can use both figurative and verbal-logical material. ". Reducing fantasy to representation would return us “to the almost definite dualistic opposition of figurative and conceptual cognition.”

Refusal of the emphasis on formal differences between fantasy and thinking and, on the contrary, an appeal to identifying the similarities of these processes in the corresponding characteristics takes place in the experimental studies of a number of modern foreign psychologists.

Thus, E. Peivio’s research “ Imagination and synchronous comprehension” reflected an attempt to analyze the relationship between concrete figurative and abstract elements in the deployment of “mental imagination ”. Based on his own experimental data and the results of the experiments of other researchers (Bag, Bauer, Smith, Pavio concludes that, contrary to ideas in the imagination as a static and ineffective component of thinking, it, on the contrary, can be characterized by high accuracy, speed and flexibility of information processes. Focusing on analysis integrative relationships between perceptual and verbal moments in the process of ideation, Peivio evaluates these connections not in the order of “adjustment” and “subordination,” but as synchronous, that is, simultaneous and dependent on each other.

Correlating the experiments of A.I. Rozov, E. Peivio, and isolating the moments of the transition of thinking into fantasy discovered by the authors (A.I. Rozov, pairing fantasy with comprehension (E. Peivio), one cannot help but note their significant difference from those traditional generalizations according to which Only the level of visual-figurative reflection is assigned to the imagination

A departure from such an interpretation of the transformative possibilities of fantasy is beginning to spread among philosophical studies of recent times. Thus, they emphasize that in the course of fantasy, complex combined images can be created, including “. both sensory-visual and rational-logical components”, that the result of the imagination can be figurative and logical structures.

Deep and interesting thoughts about the connection between fantasy and emotions were expressed by L. S. Vygotsky. L. S. Vygotsky reveals the dialectical nature of this process, in which, on the one hand, feelings influence the course of fantasy, and “in the other case, the opposite, imagination influences feeling .” Based on the law of double expression of feelings, he emphasizes that the experiences generated by fantastic pictures in the subject can be by no means conditional, but sincere and real. "These phenomena could be called the law of emotional reality of the imagination ."

Taking into account all points of view about the transformative capabilities of the subject, we obtain three characteristics of imagination :

a) the process of transforming perceptual-imaginative experience;

b) the process of transformation of the perceptual and abstract

experience;

c) the process of transforming the perceptual, abstract

and emotional and sensory experience.

Which of these characteristics should be preferred? We are given the most accurate third, that is, the one according to which the imagination covers the entire experience of the subject. In saying this, we simultaneously note the dissimilarity of our position with those authors who distinguish imagination (thinking)

based on the dissimilarity of the components that are used in them.

Essential for the imagination is the direction of consciousness, which consists in a departure from reality into the known relatively autonomous activity of cognition of reality.”

Unlike thinking, which is aimed at understanding reality, imagination helps to complement the known picture of the world and its “field of activity” is that “borderline” area that separates knowledge from ignorance. Of course, the boundaries of this “borderline” area are extremely blurred and not specific.

So, both thinking and imagination in their origins are inseparable from already achieved knowledge. They may have many coinciding moments in the procedural development (selection of necessary information, operations of analysis and synthesis, abstraction and generalization, phenomena of intuition and formalization, etc.; finally, they may be similar in subjective novelty, an “addition” to existing experience, but they (thinking and imagination )

always opposite in their results, when correlating them with the world of reality.

In the process of thinking, an individual strives to transform his experience into new combinations in such a way that the transformation produced is aimed at coordinating with the world of reality and, thereby, would lead to the enrichment of his knowledge with new information about the facts and patterns of reality. While fantasizing, he also transforms his experience into new combinations, but now the subjective orientation of the transformation is the opposite of the mental one and is subordinated to the task of moving away from the reality he has already known. The specific motivations for this type of transformation are extremely diverse, however, the most important of them is anticipation, as a proactive reflection of reality at that stage of the subject’s interaction with it when, due to the lack of practical and logical experience, mental anticipation turns out to be impossible.

Ideally, that is, when the subjective motives of an individual coincide with objective data, the specifics of mental and fantastic transformation can be characterized as follows: to think means, relying on the experience achieved, to go to the knowledge of a subjective new, but really existing one. To fantasize means, relying on the experience achieved, to go to the creation of a subjectively new and really non-existent one.

So, concluding the review, we note that in accordance with the presented arguments, imagination should be considered a reflective activity, including in the orbit of its transformation all the wealth of knowledge and impressions that a person acquires and which constitutes his psychological experience. It is quite acceptable to express the essence of imagination in the following definition: imagination (fantasy)

is a mental process that involves transforming the elements of an individual’s perceptual, emotional-sensual and abstract-logical experience into subjectively new combinations.

Imagination is an analytical-synthetic activity that is carried out under the guiding influence of a consciously set goal or feelings, experiences that possess a person at the moment. Most often, imagination arises in a problem situation, that is, in cases where it is necessary to find a new solution, that is, an anticipatory practical action of reflection is required, which occurs in a concrete figurative form, as a result of operating with images. Features of children with mental retardation .

The study of patterns of abnormalities development is a necessary task not only of pathopsychology, but also of defectology and child psychiatry; it is the search for these patterns, the study of the causes and mechanisms of formation of one or another defect in mental development that allows timely diagnosis of disorders and the search for ways to correct them. Development of imagination in preschoolers .

Like any mental process, imagination is subject to education. Therefore, the imagination of children already at preschool age is possible and should be purposefully and systematically subjected to educational influence.

There is still an opinion that a child has a richer imagination than an adult. Childhood is considered to be the time when fantasy is most developed , and, according to this view, as the child develops, his imagination and the power of his fantasy decline. When scientifically examining this issue, this view is not confirmed. The experience of a child is much poorer than that of an adult; his interests are simpler, more elementary; His relationships with the environment also do not have the complexity, subtlety and diversity that distinguish the behavior of an adult, and yet all these are the most important factors determining the work of the imagination . From this it follows that a child’s imagination is poorer than that of an adult ; In the process of child development, imagination also develops , reaching its maturity only in an adult.

Fantasy, like other mental functions, undergoes changes with the age of the child. Noticeable manifestations of children's imagination , accessible to direct observation, are found in children by the end of the 2nd year of life. During this period, imagination is involuntary and the nature of its manifestation is determined by the specific situation in which he finds himself and the possibilities that he has at the moment. Thus, the act of feeding a child by his mother will awaken similar imitative actions in him, in which he will try, for example, to feed a doll. of imaginary feeding arises , the course of which is determined by the actual capabilities of the child.

In early preschool age imagination is just beginning , it is characterized by a passive form. During this period, children's recreating imagination . Listening to the stories and fairy tales of adults, the child mentally sees the objects that are discussed in the story. That is imagination uncritically compensates for the lack of life experience and practical thinking by implanting the described fairy-tale images into the child’s real life. That is why he easily believes that the dressed up actor is the real Father Frost or Baba Yaga, and is afraid of the evil wizard or the wolf on the TV screen.

Perceiving the speech of an adult, the child is forced to operate with the ideas he has not arbitrarily, but in the sequence that follows from the course and content of the narrative. Quite often, the child’s ideas are formed into figurative pictures that differ from those that took place in his life experience. Sooner or later the child will pay attention to this, he will begin to notice that from the same ideas it is possible to “mentally” create a wide variety of combinations. Thus, in the process of figurative reconstruction performed by the child under the influence of the speaker’s speech, elements of his own creativity begin to intersperse. In other words, within the boundaries of the child’s recreating imagination , his creative imagination . As the child practices more and more in actions of this kind, the manifestations of his independent creativity will naturally increase and become more complex. Finally, the moment will come when he will try on his own, without the help of adults, to come up with a riddle, poem, fairy tale, etc. Tests of this kind should be considered an indicator that the child has entered a period of formation of creative imagination . It does not matter that initially his creative imagination will be primitive and imperfect. Appropriate exercises will develop it. The fact of its appearance is significant in itself. Now the child’s intellect has been enriched with a new quality, the boundaries of his mind have expanded. From now on, the child can operate with his ideas not only in accordance with the wishes of adults, but also in the way he wishes.

Senior preschool and primary school age are characterized by activation of the imagination . First, recreating (allowing at an earlier age to imagine fairy-tale images, and then creative (thanks to which a fundamentally new image is created)

. This period is sensitive for the formation of fantasy. Encouraging a child to fantasize is extremely simple and does not require significant effort from the teacher. After all, it is known that it is useful and necessary for a child to “find work” when the stock of his own ingenuity is depleted. In these cases, he is usually recommended to draw, run, drive a car, or something similar. These recommendations may also include encouragement for creative imagination. This can be expressed, for example, in the fact that, along with reading or telling fairy tales and riddles to the child, you can invite him to come up with something similar, his own.

What are the stages of imagination development in preschool children ?

Until the age of 3, children’s imagination exists within other mental processes, where its foundation is laid. of imagination occurs . Here imagination becomes an independent process.

At 4–5 years old, the child begins to plan, to make a mental plan for upcoming actions.

At 6–7 years old, imagination is active. Recreated images appear in various situations, characterized by content and specificity. Elements of creativity appear.

Psychologists believe that for the development of imagination, certain conditions must be present: emotional communication with adults; object-manipulative activity; the need for different types of activities.

The onset of the child’s independent, purposeful fantasy will be greatly facilitated if he is clearly shown how this is done. For this purpose, in the presence of a child, you can come up with a fairy tale, a poem, a riddle about the objects that surround him.

When starting to develop children's imagination , you should know that the child's first creative results will turn out to be very imperfect both in terms of content and in terms of methods of their creation. Unlike us adults, children initially do not subordinate their imitative creativity to a preliminary plan, but do the opposite, i.e., first they come up with something, and then they try (and even then not always)

discover some meaning in something invented. All the child’s concern in his first creative attempts comes down to external copying of those phonetic rhythms that are inherent in riddles, poems and fairy tales. However, the child's subsequent attempts will be characterized by increasing expediency.

This is clearly demonstrated by the evolution of children's creativity in inventing riddles.

Here, for example, are the first riddles of a child (3 years 4 months)

1. And his mother washes the picture with a poker.

(Mom washes rattles under the tap)

Usually, as can be seen from the examples given, children's first riddles are a meaningless set of words. While the meaning for a child is secondary, it is, first of all, important for him to say something so that it sounds like the riddles he has heard before.

Very soon, children's attitude towards meaning and form begins to change.

They begin to strive for their riddles to have a certain meaning and weaken their attention to the form of their expression. Now children try to use simplified, stereotyped phrases for riddles.

The following riddles are typical in this regard (3 years 5 minutes)

1. What is it that hangs, everything is on fire, but if you extinguish it, it will turn black, like a fly.

(Bulb)

Then children refuse to adhere to these conventions, and in choosing the form for expressing their riddles they begin to act very freely, however, giving a clear preference to prose.

For example (4 years 8 months)

1. They use it to hide, but it is boiling water.

(Blanket)

As children grow up, they begin to become dissatisfied with the phonetic imperfection of their “prosaic” riddles, try to avoid this and often create riddles that are quite original in form and content (5 sheets 5 pages)

1. Two hands with mugs help mom.

(Glasses)

2. Dots, tails, hooks are book icons.

Anyone who knows them reads books.

(Letters)

Thus, as they gain experience in inventing riddles, children are not only able to approach the knowledge of their essence - the veiling of meaning through incomplete or allegorical expression, but also to subordinate their imitative activity to this, both in choosing a plot and in finding the necessary form for his expressions.

Unlike riddles, which children learn to create relatively early, they try to come up with poems later, at the age of four and a half, five years. As a rule, when children come up with a verse, they only care about observing the rhyme, without having a prior idea not only about the general content of the entire verse, but also without knowing about the content of the next stanza. Therefore, the child is usually sincerely surprised by the meaning that arises. For example (4 years 7 months)

Vasya got into the car. It drove very quickly. And then he slept a little, and he dreamed of a cat.

But no matter how primitive children's poems are, no matter what semantic and stylistic flaws they contain, no matter how naive and conservative the process of their composition, they belong primarily only to those children who practice in this direction.

Unlike riddles and poems, fairy tales are created not only by children with whom work is being done to develop imagination , but often also by those with whom such work is not being done. This is apparently explained by the fact that every child becomes acquainted with a fairy tale very early, and that it is the predominant type of the fantastic genre, the child’s need for which, according to established tradition, is relatively fully satisfied under any conditions of upbringing.

By listening to countless fairy tales, the child comprehends both their stylistic and plot features, which he can then, to a certain extent, observe when composing his own fairy tale.

The child’s task is also made easier by the fact that the literary form of a fairy tale approaches ordinary narrative speech.

Here, for example, is the tale of Katyusha L. (5 years 8 minutes)

who has not previously practiced inventing fairy tales:

“Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman . They had a son. They were poor. The son has grown up. He took a job as a butcher. They paid him little. One day he was walking along the road and suddenly he found a small silver wallet. He opened it, and there was a small golden ladybug. She said: “You set me free, and for this I will do whatever you want.” The butcher says: “Okay, I’ll set you free.” . For this you will give me a lot of gold money.” I came home, and there was gold. And they began to live and get along.”

When working with preschoolers to develop imagination , their age characteristics should be taken into account. For example, the necessary exercises should be carried out in a playful way, continuing them as long as children perform them with interest, and stopping immediately as soon as these exercises become boring to them. It is also necessary to strive to develop their readiness for purposeful fantasy. At this age level, the content of riddles, fairy tales, and poems should be taken into account by the teacher, but at the same time this should not be considered decisive when assessing the corresponding achievements of children. This criterion will become the main one only after children have developed a strong readiness for purposeful fantasy.

In the preschool period, the main goal of the teacher’s work on developing children’s imagination should be mainly to exercise their ability to transform the impressions that they acquire from the surrounding reality. The extent to which children master this skill will determine the transformative properties of their fantasy. Without it there is no imagination . This property is an innate property of our brain, the same, for example, as the tendency to master articulate speech, and it needs to be developed and exercised in the same way as our innate speech predisposition.

The sooner the purposeful and systematic process of developing this property of imagination in a child , the more likely it is that he will develop a creative mindset.

Imagination disorders and their causes

Children may suffer from a lack of imagination or, on the contrary, their imagination becomes uncontrollable.

Imagination deficits are usually experienced by children with speech impairments, because speech and thinking and imagination are interconnected. With speech pathology, the child thinks primitively, he is not able to create a new image, he cannot invent, compose, and also carry out tasks of an adult where he needs to use his imagination. These children usually have difficulty remembering terms, assimilating the acquired knowledge, and do not understand symbols.

Children who have low self-esteem may also have a deficit of imagination. They are afraid of doing something wrong, they are absolutely deprived of independence, which suppresses imagination.

In this case, teachers need to creatively overcome the child’s inhibition step by step, offering to develop abilities through play, the basis of which will be a situation familiar to the child. A good way out of this situation would be the theater. You also need to focus on cognitive activities to broaden the child’s horizons. Emphasis on emotions will play a big role. What impressed you will leave a mark on your soul, and you will want to learn more about it.

Violent fantasy, which can manifest itself in aggression, lies, fears, and the replacement of the real world with a fantasy world, can also interfere with the normal productive development of the imagination.

The reasons for this inadequate imagination may be the child’s internal fears, problems he has with family and peers, inability to get along with the outside world, as well as other psychological problems.

In this case, it is advisable to contact psychologists who will help create an individual program to eliminate the pathology.

Features of imagination in older preschool age.

Senior preschool age is sensitive (sensitive) for the formation of imagination. Let us consider the features of the development of imagination in children of senior preschool age, which were identified by psychologists L.S. Vygotsky, V.V. Davydov and D.B. Elkonin.

L.S. Vygotsky characterizes senior preschool age by activating the function of imagination: first, recreating imagination - which allows one to imagine fairy-tale images at an early stage, and then creative imagination - thanks to which a fundamentally new image is created. V.V. Davydov points out such a feature of the imagination of older preschoolers as the mobility of imaginative images, the ability to deviate from a stereotyped, hackneyed solution; creation of a new, original work; coming up with different versions of the same topic. These features determine the level of creative imagination. The images and ideas of preschool children are flexible and dynamic, which allows a child of senior preschool age to isolate different properties of these images, transfer them to other images, and create new images, wrote V.V. Davydov. D.B. Elkonin argues that the development of children’s imagination is associated, first of all, with special visual-figurative tasks, the conditions of which are set from the outside, and the grounds and purpose of such tasks are associated with understanding their conditions. At the age of five, children begin to have dreams about the future. They are situational, often unstable, caused by events that caused an emotional response in children. The support is not only the real object, but also the ideas expressed in the word. The child begins to compose fairy tales, reversals, and continuing stories. However, the preschooler's imagination remains largely involuntary. The subject of fantasy becomes something that greatly excited, fascinated, or amazed him: a book he read, a cartoon he saw, or a new toy. The growth of the arbitrariness of the imagination is manifested in the development of the ability to create a plan and plan its achievement. Older preschoolers are able to fantasize freely, planning in advance the process of implementing the idea. They outline a plan to achieve the goal and pre-select ready-made equipment.

Features of the development of children of senior preschool age, first of all, are manifested in the intensive development of thinking and other intellectual processes, a significant change in the motivational sphere, and orientation towards social relationships in the adult world. Many psychologists believe that it is at this age that the problem of developing imagination should come to the fore in raising a child. The bearer of social experience for a child is an adult. The interaction between a child and an adult gives rise to certain forms of mental activity. Author of the psychological and pedagogical theory of amplification and enrichment of development A.V. Zaporozhets emphasizes the enormous importance and intrinsic value of specifically “children’s” types of activities and forms of communication. It is becoming urgent to search for new sources of enriching the content of children’s activities and, in this regard, to study the influence of games on the development of imagination precisely in older preschool age. The prerequisites for the development of imagination are the child’s activity, his need for new experiences, communication and self-affirmation. The sources of imagination formation are the joint actions of an adult and a child to recombine the subject environment, giving unusual meanings to an object, the creation by an adult of imaginary situations with the participation of a child, verbal communication, verbal and figurative interpretation by an adult of the child’s sensory experience.

In studies of specific types of creative activity of preschoolers, the development of imagination is considered as its transition from recreating forms to more creative ones. The authors consider 2.5 - 4 years to be the lower limit of imagination. It is traditional and generally accepted that the imagination develops by the age of 3-4 at the level of developed speech in the process of role-playing play, when the child creates a detailed imaginary situation (L.S. Vygotsky, S.L. Rubinstein, A.N. Leontyev, D. B. Elkonin, V. V. Davydov, etc.). Imagination is an element of the symbolic function and is formed together with speech in the joint actions of a child and an adult according to the mechanism of social inheritance. The most important moment of imagination is the creation (vision) of a complete image before its parts.

Older preschool age (5-6 years) is considered by some psychologists and teachers as the time of formation of productive activity, when the development of imagination depends on the specific content of actions. It is possible to assume that the general mechanisms of imagination develop within these time boundaries. As soon as a child begins to walk and gains free access to objects, his desire to change the subject environment and vary his actions is observed. Objects are carried, rearranged by the child, connected, used by him in different conditions and with different meanings. Recombining the subject environment is accompanied by bright positive emotions. The child admires the result, claps his hands, and invites everyone to watch. All this allows us to characterize variable actions as the prehistory of the game, and the methods of their implementation as materialized forms of imagination: separation-connection, transfer to other conditions, animation, attributing the functions of one object to another. The motive is getting new experiences and the joy of creating them yourself. They express a personal element—the child’s playful attitude toward the subject.

As the child masters phrasal speech, he begins to use words to complete the image of an event based on its individual elements. Stories appear - interpretations about drawings, cartoons, vaguely perceived objects, individual sounds. In the 3rd year of life, the mechanisms and methods of recombining experience are improved. The variation in the arrangement of objects decreases, the variation in the methods of action increases. The child includes elements of the imaginary into everyday actions: “Let the doll watch what I do.” The plots of the game, the characteristics of the characters, and the position of the toys vary. The conditioned action begins to achieve high schematization - it is performed on any object and even without objects based on the word (they treat them with milk out of nothing). Imaginary situations are expressed in words, bright and varied. The game develops in the logic of action (a detailed plot) and in the logic of the image - the plot is colored by facial expressions, emotions, and accompanying actions. Speech-story is still accompanied by conditional actions, but actions are increasingly described in words. At the same time, the images become variable and endowed with unusual properties (good fox, good wolf, etc.). Specific phenomena of the imagination appear: personal inclusions in the plot, one’s own endings and versions of fairy tales, fantasy lies, fears, the ideal image of a good child, distant intentions (“When I grow up...”).

At the age of 3 to 5 years, material recombination actions are increasingly replaced by verbal ones. The child begins to “figure out” and “try on” options, for example: “If there is blood, should I fill it with iodine? What if it’s a small wound?.. What if it’s tiny? What if there’s a lot of bleeding?” Variation becomes imaginary. Imaginary situations are dynamic and variable, which is achieved by verbal addition to the plot; the game lasts several days and includes stories about the characters' actions in the past. The plot is created easily; A short cue is enough, and the child enters the role. Vivid images encourage you to furnish the game with numerous attributes, to prefer detailed, realistic toys to conventional substitutes.

Ideas change significantly, the child operates with them freely. He adds a phrase or scene he hears to a complete image with a variety of elements involved (having seen in the cartoon that the king drowned, he adds: “But the queen waited and waited for him, but never came”). There is a peculiar game of transformation of images, such as: “If this ditch were wide, wide, then what would the street become?” The ability to imagine circumstances and correlate details reduces fantasy lies. Fears remain, but the child understands their groundlessness.

Personal inclusions in literary plots are associated with given circumstances: the child no longer changes events, but mourns the hero in a hopeless situation or says, “I wouldn’t do that.” Images - ideals also acquire a detailed character. In stories about a good doll, one hears a set of ideal qualities and actions; they reflect the child’s intentions, but not always real behavior. By the age of 5, the planning function of the imagination increases. When going out to play, they select toys for a specific plot. They represent a two-pronged development of the plot: you do this, and I will do this. The partner’s actions begin to be imagined several moves ahead. Real conditions for role-playing games are created. But in group play, detail and artistry decrease, children begin to act in an average way, “as it happens.” Imagination begins to serve productive activity. Items are tried on in advance for different functions and subjects. They begin to collect all sorts of wires and buttons for future use in the hope of attaching them to something. Intentions to draw this and that appear—preliminary actions on an imaginary plane. Technical fantasies (“To make the crib fly”) and object roles appear: I am a tractor, I am a puck, etc. The child tries to model technical devices using inadequate means—role. Bright, detailed images encourage drawing, but they also increase the criticality of self-esteem, which can discourage drawing for a long time.

In drawings and buildings, verbal additions are much richer than images. The above facts allow us to say that by the age of 4 the world of fantasy becomes isolated, and the child takes a detached position. Images become dynamic, change in changing circumstances, and are used to mentally “play out” real situations. At 5-6 years of age, the planning function of the imagination intensifies as preliminary preparation of means and “playing out” future actions.

In older preschool age, when performance in memorization appears, the imagination turns from reproductive (recreating) into creative. The imagination of children of this age is already connected with thinking and is included in the process of planning actions. Children's activities become conscious and purposeful. Children's creative imagination is manifested in role-playing games. By the end of the preschool period of childhood, children’s imagination is presented in two main forms:

arbitrary, independent generation of an idea by a child;

the emergence of an imaginary plan for its implementation.

Psychologists associate the emergence of voluntary imagination with the complication of children’s activities and communication. In particular, the first images of voluntary imagination are created by the child under the influence of the verbal influences of an adult in a role-playing game.

Let us highlight a few more features characteristic of the imagination of older preschoolers. In the process of creating creative images, children of senior preschool age use both a combination of previously received ideas (memory ideas) and their transformation, carried out by analyzing and synthesizing existing ideas and current perceptions. A widely used technique for creating creative images is hyperbole. Deliberately, sometimes grotesquely, exaggerating any qualities of objects or phenomena, taking them to the extreme, absolutizing them, children of senior preschool age create sharp opposites that are understandable. For example, in stories and fairy tales written by children, even the main characters are described without halftones or nuances. The main characters are either the embodiment of all negative qualities, or “angels in the flesh.” The animistic nature of the images created by children is also well known. Often in his imagination, a child endows inanimate objects with the attributes of a living thing, and gives anthropomorphic features to dead matter and physical phenomena.

Thinking by analogy reaches a high level of development. In terms of imagination, older preschoolers easily transfer the qualities of one object to another, and often resort to metaphors. Thus, the importance of imagination in mental development is great; it contributes to better knowledge of the world around us and the development of the child’s personality. So, after analyzing the features of the imagination of children of senior preschool age, we can draw the following conclusions.

So, the imagination of children of senior preschool age has the following distinctive features:

-in older preschool age, the formation of a special activity of the imagination occurs - fantasizing;

- the child masters techniques and means of creating new images;

- imagination acquires an arbitrary character, involving the creation of a plan, its planning and implementation;

-imagination moves to the internal plane, since there is no need for visual support for creating images.

What influences the development of a child’s imagination

In order for the development of a child’s imagination to proceed correctly, it is necessary to create a comfortable atmosphere in which the child will learn to fantasize with pleasure and benefit, but will not cross the dangerous line between reality and the illusory world.

Develop speech, since thought processes are associated with speech functions.
Pay attention to the development of the child's fine motor skills. The more actively a child works with his hands, the better he speaks and thinks.
Eliminate loneliness, which, in turn, will eliminate the need for the child to create imaginary friends.
It is important to increase a child’s self-esteem, not by comparing him with other peers, but by comparing him only with himself, based on his achievements and actions.
Trusting relationships with parents play a big role. If a child is not afraid of punishment, then he will not have to lie. But you can encourage creative writing - fairy tales, stories, drawings, crafts.
There should be a lot of creativity in a child's life. These activities stimulate the imagination.

- its prerequisites, representation and delayed imitation take shape;

- imagination appears in the game when an imaginary situation arises and game renaming of objects;

- imagination functions only with the support of real objects and external actions with them.

§ 2. Development of imagination in preschool age

The imagination of a preschooler differs from the imagination of an adult; behind its apparent wealth lies poverty, vagueness, sketchiness and stereotyping of images. After all, the basis of imaginative images is the recombination of material stored in memory. But preschoolers still have insufficient knowledge and ideas. The apparent wealth of imagination is associated with the low criticality of children's thinking, when children do not know how it happens and how it does not happen. The lack of such knowledge is both a disadvantage and an advantage of children's imagination. A preschooler easily combines different ideas and is uncritical of the resulting combinations, which is especially noticeable in early preschool age (L.S. Vygotsky).

A preschooler does not create anything fundamentally new from the point of view of social culture. The characterization of the novelty of images matters only for the child himself: whether this was the case in his own experience.

Until children reach the age of 5-6 years, almost throughout the entire preschool age, they lack a plan or it is extremely unstable and easily destroyed. And sometimes (especially at 3-4 years old) the idea is born only after the action. The child does not think about the possibilities of practical implementation of the images he creates. For an adult, a dream acts as a stimulus to action. But for a child, combinations of images are practically hopeless. He fantasizes for the sake of fantasizing. He is attracted by the very process of combining, creating new situations, characters, events, which has a strong emotional overtones.

At first, the imagination is inextricably linked with the object, which serves as an external support. So, in a game, a 3-4 year old child cannot imagine an action with an object. He cannot rename an item unless he acts on it. He imagines a chair as a ship or a cube as a saucepan when he works with them. The substitute item itself must be similar to the item being replaced. It is toys and objects-attributes that lead the child to one or another plot of the game (M.G. Vityaz). For example, I saw a white coat - I started playing hospital, I saw the scales - I became a “salesman”. If for younger preschoolers the support in play is toys, then for middle and older preschoolers it is the fulfillment of the role they have taken on. Gradually, the imagination begins to rely on objects that are not at all similar to those being replaced. Thus, older preschoolers use natural materials (leaves, cones, sticks, pebbles, etc.) as play materials.