The mental development of a child is often defined as the formation of a certain system of knowledge, skills and abilities. But now this concept has a deeper meaning. It is more important to activate the child’s cognitive activity, to develop thought processes – the ability to analyze and synthesize, classify, compare and generalize.

Already at birth, children differ from each other, they have different physiological and psychological inclinations. In the future, the overall development of each child occurs according to its own individual pattern. There are no children with exactly the same mental development. The level of mental development of a child depends not only on intelligence, it is determined by many factors, such as the innate characteristics of the nervous system, living conditions, teaching methods, mental development classes, etc.

In modern psychology, it is customary to distinguish three types of mental development of a child: emotional, speech and logical development. Each type has its own age intervals during which this type develops most successfully.

Emotional development of the child
It starts at birth and lasts up to a year and a half. The emotional sphere plays an important role in the full intellectual and mental development of the child. From birth, the baby needs an emotional connection with the mother, which contributes to the formation of emotions that further determine the behavior of a person in society.

In no case should a child be deprived of communication, since the main source of his feelings are relationships with other people, both with adults and with children. Not a few important role in the life of children is played by various experiences (sympathy, joy, tenderness, etc.), they can also experience in relation to animals, plants, objects and natural phenomena. That is why a friendly atmosphere in the house, communication, care, smiles and praise from relatives are so important for the successful emotional development of a child.

Speech development in children
It starts at birth and continues until about ten years of age. The development of a child’s speech is closely related to the development of his intellect, creative abilities and higher mental functions. Starting from the birth of a baby, it is necessary to develop his speech: communicate with him, respond to his baby talk, regardless of whether he understands you or not. As soon as the baby starts talking, you need to start learning nursery rhymes, nursery rhymes, songs with him, thereby training both memory and speech.

One of the important factors in the development of speech is the development of fine motor skills. What does it include:

Finger games;
Subject games;
Drawing;
Modeling;
Construction;
It is important to note that for proper speech development, you need to read books with your child, discuss and retell what you read, look at pictures, compose stories and fairy tales about your favorite characters.

Children are born with unique abilities to perceive and learn any language. Parents should properly teach the child to speak, try to use as few diminutives, made-up words as possible, as the child can remember the wrong pronunciation.

Logic development
Time frame: from one to five years. The most important stage in the development of a child’s mental abilities is the development of logical thinking.

To develop this type of thinking, the child is offered to independently perform logical operations (analysis, comparison, classification, generalization, etc.). Logical thinking is closely related to the development of hearing, vision and touch of the child, therefore, to stimulate the development of logical and mathematical abilities, it is necessary to sort objects according to their characteristics (size, shape, purpose of objects, etc.), instill interest in music (listen to classical musicplay with musical toys).

For the normal development of a child, it is necessary from birth to form correct speech, intellectual knowledge, emotional and volitional spheres, as well as higher mental functions.