Intellectual development of children in a new perspective
One day, me and my 2 year old son were in the service station. He looked on how the mechanic changed the tires for about 20 minutes. After that, my lovely son changed the tires on his toy cars.
Then, he started spitting on the floor, with relish. He also learned this from the auto mechanic. Needless to say, it was a very good trip, we had the car prepared for the new season and the son acquired of new skills.
OPEN QUESTIONS
That is how children thinking skills are dealt with? Sometimes, I repeatedly show my son, how to do something and then I wait until he repeats it, but no, he either doesn’t want to or he can’t do it right. However, when we went to the service station, as soon as he saw the mechanic working, he needed to look just once and then he could easily repeat the action.
And the same problem occurs with his speech. I involve him in speech therapy, exercises that I perform for him as an activity for development, and we have been doing lessons of Maria Montessori, reading lots of books, but still, whatever we do, he speaks his own language. Why? Nobody taught him these strange words and didn't mangle words talking to him. It is unclear why the son speaks that way.
At the same time according to teachers' recommendations on the development of speech in children, the principle of repetition is the best way of learning. If parents want their children to speak perfectly, and have a rich vocabulary, they will need to converse with them, teach them new words, regularly engage in games, draw, do clay modeling, and get involve their child in other special activities. And, it's rather not to leave a child unattended or without affection.
IS IT A DEVELOPMENTAL DELAY?
Today it is considered that the development of thinking and speech are interdependent. Poor speech - poor thinking. No words - no thoughts.
And if a child speaks very fast, some parents can start worrying. Is everything alright with the processes of his thoughts? He doesn’t listen to the questions, but already tries to give an answer that is the one of the symptoms of attention deficit disorder.
All parents want their children to be healthy, happy and well-educated. They want to hear from doctors and psychologists that the level of development of their child's talking and thinking skills agree with his age well.
It is quite often happens that an opinion of parents differs from an opinion of a doctor. Of course, it can relate to the fact, that for the mother and father their child is the best by definition, so their love is blind and doesn't let them see the obvious deviations in the development.
And how to understand the fact when doctors diagnose speech delay but a child understands perfectly what other people say, and a little bit later he starts to speak in full sentences? Or when a child can understand everything but doesn’t speak for a long time, then suddenly he starts to speak very well. What is this? It is a miracle? Is it an Indigo child? Are they characteristics of individual development?
So what parents can do, if their child doesn’t speak as many words as required for his age: wait or take urgent actions like medical
treatment with help of pharmaceutical products?
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT CHILDREN'S THINKING?
The quote of Rene Descartes, “I think, therefore I am.”, shows how thinking defines a personality. The development of thinking ability is the most important stage in our lives. It's level determines how we represent the external world in our brain, gain knowledge on its characteristics, their interconnections and, finally, draw out our own conclusions.
The nature of thinking is described, in some way, in philosophy, logic studies its forms and laws, and physiology – its psychophysiological mechanisms.
Gradually, a child goes through the following stages of thinking development:
- Visual – Active. When a child sees what other people do and tries to copy their actions. For example, a child puts on glasses like his grandmother does.
- Visual – Figurative. When a child sees an apple then he can imagine it. In the future, if the child hears the word “apple”, he knows what it means.
- Verbal - Logical. When a child learns to find the cause and effect connections between objects, see how different they are, and make his own conclusions.
At some point, the above-mentioned ways of thinking can present in people, just sometimes one of them could be more needed at a certain time, and another might be used another day. With time we get better at using these thinking techniques: the information on the previous experience mixes with the new information, gets processed in our brain, and we become smarter. For example, at age of 4-6, the visual-figurative thinking develops in children, and later on, the visual - active thinking doesn’t disappear, but acquires the new stage of further development.
Speech development is accompanied by the development of thinking. Developed thinking means developed speech and vice versa.
RECIPES FOR EVERYBODY
There are some pieces of advice on effective development of speech and intellect in children:
- Engage your child in special developing classes;
- Create good atmosphere for the child to learn about the world;
- Put adequate limits on your child's curiosity, and only let him perform safe actions;
- Send your child to preschool;
- Involve your child in creative activities;
- Read books to them;
- Cultivate independent thinking;
- Let a child make his own choice;
- Teach a child to make decisions and analyze information around.
Responsible parents begin to engage in the development of the baby from birth (and some when a baby is in utero). Most of them understand how important it is not to lose time of the sensitive periods and do their best. They apply new methods of early development.
Some people in order to develop thinking abilities of a child make them think faster, creative and different. Some parents work on their child's logic.
Why do they do this? Usually older people want to develop the speech and thinking in their children, because they hope that it will help to succeed in a business, communication with other people, and, generally, in life thus achieve their parent’s big dream. They send their children to public speaking, foreign languages courses and others. Childhood is a preparation for adulthood. And the better we prepare our child for it, the better he will adapt in the future.
The author, Steven Harrison wrote in his book “The Happy Child: Changing the Heart of Education” that we are so enthusiastic about teaching our children, we even forget that the most important part of a child’s education is creation of his happy life. Also a happy life is what we wish with all our hearts to our children and ourselves.
THIS IS HAPPINESS
System Vector Psychology provides us with better understanding of how we educate and develop our children. “Normal” and “abnormal” development with the understanding of the innate abilities of children, takes on a new meaning. Is there a norm or a standard?. Attempt to find one is like comparing and analyzing thinking abilities of cuckoos and dolphins then giving general recommendations for both. Without doubts there is something in common between these two, but the efficiency of common recommendations on their development would be very law in contrast to individual ones.
The systematic approach allows us to define what qualities a child has from birth, therefore avoid mistakes in upbringing and education. It's impossible to develop qualities that aren't natural in a baby. So, why waste your time and nerves on trying, making a loved one miserable?
HOW CAN THIS BE?
Congratulations with your new-born baby! You have a boy, who was born with the anal vector. His type of thinking is 'viscous' and rigid. For him, it is difficult to adapt to anything new. Due to his unique memory, he has the ability to handle large volumes of information. It is very important not to hurry this child, teach to act according patterns and praise him when he does well, and he will succeed in fulfilling other tasks in future. He is meticulous, scrupulous and brings everything to the end.
To expect creativity and fast thinking from him is like to make a fish fly. It is impossible. Such expectations will make a child with the anal vector feel he is not as good as others and hold a grudge against his parents.
A sharp change causes stress in a child with the anal vector. This is the reason why sometimes he stops developing. We all heard stories from the parents who complained how their child, out of the blue, stopped talking, became anxious or failed an exam, although before, his development went quite fine and he spoke very well.
Before diagnosing mental retardation, it is a good idea, at first to find out what could cause it. For the development of a child with the anal vector it is good to read books, to play wooden bricks, do puzzles and play any other game where he has to sit and think, to be organized and patient. Praise and kinds words is a great encouragement for such child. If they are fair and he deserved them.
I'M RUNNING
Have a look! You have a boy, who was born with the dermal vector!
Flexible thinking lets him not only adapt to changing conditions, but also to take advantage of them. He quickly thinks and make decisions. He doesn't pay attentions to every detail but thinks about for and against. Being deep in thought isn't natural for him, he jumps on tops and good at multitasking.
If the parents try to cultivate assiduity in him, make him do a lot of thinking and complete what he started, repeat the same things over and over, forbid from trying different things, then a dermal child will lose interest in learning about the world. He is quick to grasp everything, and he quickly learns to speak. All new experiences bring him pleasure. His speech is fluent and brief. For him, time is money. He saves on words and goes straight to the point.
The best way to develop thinking and speech in dermal children is to make them play outdoor games where they can compete with each other. They like mathematics very much, material values are their priority. If you want to teach something a dermal child, make a list of the things which will bring him benefit out of achieving the goal.
These children are leaders by nature, so it is important for them to be the first. Material benefits can encourage them for correctly completing a task and stimulate for new achievements. It doesn't have to be cash in his pocket but something that can bring indirect benefits to the child. For example, a trip to the circus, or going to bed an hour later.
Such children become brilliant engineers, architects and lawyers. Who else is able to react with lightning speed to a change of a situation, answer tricky questions, make their way by shifts and look for loopholes to achieve their goals?
I CAN DO EVERYTHING
Let me introduce you to the King, he is simply the King. This child has very big potential from birth. His thinking is only directed to the future. He was born with the urethral vector. He naturally doesn't feel any kind prohibition or limitation in anything, no authority exists for him - he doesn't appeal to the statements of the classics, to another's experience, and to compare with with other children doesn't male any sense. He knows about his significance. He feels superior to other people. In the early times, an urethral person was the leader (a chief) of the pack, and now, they still lead us along.
Lowering his rank even a little, for example, forcing him to perform educational tasks, can make him angry and resistant. He knows what he wants. He personally would check if his predecessors made right conclusions.
The best things his parents can do are to admire his achievements, forward his vigor in the right direction, appealing to his natural sense of responsibility, “If not you, then who?”
Who will cope with difficult tasks, learn more words than everyone else, find the answer to a difficult question, solve a problem in non-standard way? Who will unite and lead the team? Of course, it would be him. No matter what task he undertakes, in principle,everything is within his reach. Everything depends on the parents, could they bring him up in the right way? A urethral child primarily develops through communication with other children.
THE EIGHT VECTORS OF REALITY
According to the System Vector Psychology of Yuri Burlan, we differentiate children by their inborn characteristics, the eight vectors. I showed by the example of three vectors how to develop speech in a child with the specific combination of the lower vectors.
At the end of this article, we will have a look, how the development of thinking works in the upper vectors.
BEAUTY IS A FORCE
The child with the visual vector is perceptive, sensitive and emotional. This child is easy to teach how to speak beautifully, because by nature, he is provided with the desire for beauty. For the development of his speech and thinking, experience is needed. He mainly learns through eyes and has visual memory, so it is better for him to see once, than to hear a hundred times. Pictures, movies, cartoons and developmental cards demonstrate great results in teaching a visual child.
He develops through reading books (we should be careful what to chose for these children) and drawing stimulate well his creative thinking. For example, the anal-visual children turn into the world's best artists and designers.
SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE
The child with the audial vector completely focuses on himself, his internal experiences and sensations. This child can remain silent for some time but when he starts speaking, he speaks in full sentences. He just needs time for finding the answers to some questions and then he comes out of his shell. He lives ideas.
He speaks quietly, but if you don’t shout at him, you don’t speak up and demand to respond faster, he will become a real genius. He is better at written language than spoken one.
A WORD IS LIKE A BIRD
The child with the oral vector has verbal intellect, he thinks when he talks. Usually he starts speaking very early, his speech is very fast and he swallows endings.
For him, it is important to find someone to listen to him. To express thoughts on paper is extremely difficult: it is not clear what words to choose from a flow of thoughts.
It is important to teach him how to find the most important point in his thinking speech, never interrupting him. He can turn into a brilliant speaker. If you do not listen to him, he will still try to make you listen, start making up stories. Never beat on his lips – in the future he can stutter or become a pathological liar.
Nowadays, children are born with a combination of a few vectors. If you would like to know which ones your child has, you can get this information on Yuri Burlan's training. Actions are followed by thoughts, and what those thoughts are, particularly, depends on the degree of intellectual development. We are measured out a relatively short period of time for the development of the natural qualities: from birth to puberty, so do not miss a chance to adequately develop your child. His happiness is in your hands.
author: Olga Knyazeva, tutor and psychologist
Translated by Irena
The article is based on the materials from the System Vector Psychology training presented by Yuri Burlan.
