Associative play activities

What is Associative Play? Age, Examples And Benefits

Playing in collaboration with other kids improves a child’s social and cognitive skills.

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Toddlers begin participating in activities with other children their age between the ages of three and four. They will be more concerned with the other children or the object involved in the game than with the activity itself . Associative play is the name for this type of game. Also, you’ll observe that there isn’t any interaction between the toddlers in these group activities, nor is there any organization to obtain a shared goal (1) (2). It’s a wonderful sight to witness your toddlers interact with one another. This early period of social engagement also aids your toddler in reaching critical developmental milestones. In this post, we discuss what associative play is and how it benefits toddlers while also explaining, in brief, the six stages of play during childhood.

Stages Of Play

Mildred Bernice Parten Newhall, a researcher at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development, developed the theory of six stages of play that children experience. Associative play falls into the fifth category. Let’s learn about each of these stages (2) (3).

1. Unoccupied play (0–3 months old): The baby only observes and does not play in this stage. They may make some movements and learn how their body moves.

2. Solitary play (0–2 years old): The baby starts playing alone and concentrating on activities, such as playing with building blocks.

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3. Onlooker play (2 years old): The baby begins to gain interest in others playing around but only watches them and does not interact with them.

4. Parallel play (2–3 years old): The child starts playing near others, but not with them. They may play alone and, sometimes, imitate the actions of other children around them.

5. Associative play (3–4 years old): The child begins to develop an interest in people around them. The child may do the same activity as other children, but there will be very little interaction and no organization.

6. Cooperative play (4+ years old): The child is involved in communication and takes an active part in the activity at hand. There is cooperative play, organization, and teamwork.

Point to ponder

Your child can develop through playing in an enjoyable and appropriate setting, which you may provide. So always take care of the environment you are creating for them.

Related: What Is Parallel Play? Benefits, And Activities To Encourage It

Examples Of Associative Play

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The following are some examples of activities that children usually indulge in during associative play.  

• Building a tower of blocks without planning and competition

• Sharing the same playground and using the same play equipment, such as slides, swings, merry-go-rounds, and climbers

• Cycling next to other children without choosing a destination

• Playing dress-up for a Halloween party or pirate-themed party

• Sharing a play kitchen and using play utensils, toys, etc.

• Painting or doing other craft art using the same material, but not commenting on each other’s work or completing the art together

• Playing with the same toy without chatting with each other

• Doing activities such as puzzles or connect-the-dots in preschool

• Dancing at a party without any competition with each other

• Eating their meals together during recess

• Forming a line to go to the washroom

• Running around in a circle without a motive to catch each other

• Playing on the playground without communication, however taking turns

Related: 9 Types Of Play For Child's Development And Growth

Benefits Of Associative Play

Your child is no longer in their own world in the associative play stage. Their world is expanding as they start including people other than their caregivers into their lives. Associative play can help children develop valuable skills and learn important values. Here are some benefits of associative play (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10).

1. Cooperation and sharing: Although your child may not be involved in putting in joint efforts needed to achieve a common goal at this stage, associative play encourages them to share common resources, such as a swing or slide, and prepares them to take part in group activities.

   Image: iStock

2. Respect and turn-taking: It can help them understand the importance of turn-taking and make them aware that there are certain rules for every activity and that these activities benefit the whole group. Also, as they play in a group setting, it could help them learn to respect each other.

3. Problem-solving: The child starts exercising the skills they have learned during the onlooker play and parallel play stages. As they become more active during the associative play stage, they  learn to find solutions to their problems by doing things themselves, observing other children, or interacting with other children to a certain extent.

   Image: iStock

4. Language development: It is the stage where children start to interact with others in a social setting. Children would try to verbalize their feelings, which can help develop their vocabulary and enable them to form simple sentences.

Related: 10 Foods That Will Boost Your Baby’s Brainpower

5. Preparedness for school: The communication and friendship skills acquired at this stage can help your child get comfortable in school. Mingling with children of the same age group and learning how to share, take turns, and cooperate can help them transition into school without much difficulty. 

6. Fitness: Participating in common activities with other children can make them more active. Staying active and taking part in physical activities can help develop their motor skills and strengthen their bones and muscles. 

7. Brain development: Associative play helps boost their thinking capacity, concentration, imagination, cognition, and creativity. It is through play that children explore and make sense of the world around them. Taking part in activities can help stimulate their brain and engage their senses.

   Quick tip

   Do not push your child from day one to start participating in all the activities. Give them some time to settle in. Pushing and nagging them to share or to play with other kids might make them lose interest and dislike the activities.

   Image: iStock

The associative play marks the beginning of a child’s social skills when they observe how their peers play. However, there will be little or no interaction with other children in that phase. Cycling next to peers without knowing the destination, sharing the same play area, and sharing play equipment are examples of associative play. This indicates that your child is not in their world, and they begin to learn interactive and social skills. Associative play enhances language development, develops problem-solving abilities, and prepares a child to join the school. You may provide opportunities for your child to play next to their peers to enhance these developmental milestones.

Allow your child to explore the world around them. Don’t be possessive if you don’t find yourself grabbing all the attention of your toddler during this transition stage, as you will always be their favorite person. 

Key Pointers

• Before learning to play associatively, children go through several stages of playing.
• Indulging toddlers in associative play fosters a sense of sharing and cooperation.
• Cycling with friends, roleplay activities with peers, and eating meals together are a few examples of associative play.

References:

MomJunction's articles are written after analyzing the research works of expert authors and institutions. Our references consist of resources established by authorities in their respective fields. You can learn more about the authenticity of the information we present in our editorial policy.

1. The power of play – Part 1: Stages of play; Michigan State University
2. How Kids Learn to Play: : 6 Stages of Play Development; Pathways
3. Let’s Play: Stages of Play and Appropriate Activities for Each; Virginia Infant & Toddler Specialist Network
4. Encouraging Different Stages of Play; Heart-Mind Community
5. Promoting Associative and Cooperative Interactions; Vanderbilt University
6. 7 Ways to Teach Cooperation in Early Childhood; Peace Learning Center
7. You Can Do It; Virginia Infant & Toddler Specialist Network
8. Not just child’s play: The relationship between play and language; Central Institute for the Deaf
9. Early Childhood Development: Physical Activity in Early Childhood; Novak Djokovic Foundation
10. The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds; Pediatrics

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7 Examples Of Associative Play

By Simon Books

Published Jan 20, 2021

Associative play brings a lot of benefits to your little one. He or she learns valuable life skills such as problem-solving and much more.

As your little bundle of joy grows, his or her playing habits will change. For a long time, your family members will have to be their playmates at home or the park. However, this will change after a while and they will need to play with other toddlers at playgroups, on the playground, at preschool, and at social events, to name a few. At this point, you will no longer be their source of entertainment.

However, this does not mean you will no longer be the center of their universe. It is just a great stage in their play development that you should be proud of. He or she will start taking interest in playing with others or next to them, widening their entertainment to include others. Here are seven examples of associative play.

7 Building Structures

Watch GIANT Color Toy Building Blocks House Pretend video here.

Many hosts of social events tend to set aside a play area for children to keep themselves entertained while the adults mingle. Such designated areas usually have an assortment of toys for children to play with. With other kids in this area, your child may start building towers of blocks or Legos.

When they are in the associative play stage, your child might build the block towers alone but among other kids. He or she might also be joined by others or decide to join others. This type of play does not have any kind of formal plan, organization, and competition.

RELATED: 7 Games That Spark Kids' Fantasy Play

6 Riding Around

You may have seen a situation where kids are riding their tricycles, bicycles, and scooters as a group. When kids are engaging in associative play in this setting, they do not necessarily know each other. Moreover, there is no coordination or prior plan of what the current situation is, or where they are going. They are just riding around, next to each other.

5 Painting Together

At school, you may have enrolled your little one in an art class for some painting lessons. During these sessions, your child might paint a canvas together with another classmate using the same brushes and paints.

They may create a unified art piece without communicating or commenting on what the rest of the class are painting. Associative play does not follow the common rules that require niceties or verbal communication. Painting with or alongside another child is enough.

4 Joining Others

At the playground or the park, a child plays with a colorful toy and your little one decides to join them and do what he or she is doing. Although they may or may not chat, they do not make any formal plan or set any rules. Every part of the game is made up as they continue playing. Formalities such as greetings, small talk, goodbyes, and coordinated efforts are never in their mind at this stage.

3 Dancing

During a social event, your child might decide to join other children on the dancing floor. The dancing will not be competitive in any way. Although there might be some giggles, a little chat, and the occasional singing along a song, the dancing will not involve a prolonged talking session with each other. The dancing will be uncoordinated with little effort made to correct this.

2 Sharing Play Spaces

Your child may let your visiting friend’s toddler join him or her in their designated play space. They can share your little one’s play kitchen, play utensils, and other toys without any form of organization or any effort to coordinate their playtime. Although it might seem like they are aloof of each other’s presence, this is not the case. On the contrary, they are aware and enjoy sharing their play spaces with others. This instills the concept of sharing in your toddler.

1 Building Sand Castles

A beach is commonplace for your child to experience some associative play. Building a sandcastle can attract a lot of attention from other children. When building a castle out of the sand, your child may be joined by other toddlers and cooperate in finishing the structure. During this play, communication such as, “Can I have the shove?” or “The waves are coming!” are common.

Associative play brings a lot of benefits to your little one. He or she learns valuable life skills such as problem-solving, cooperation, socialization, taking turns, sharing, and language development, among others. When they ask questions like, “How can we make the castle bigger?” and “Can I come next time?” improves such skills. In learning what to say to get their message across to others, they improve their communication skills. Many children begin making lasting friendships during associative play.

NEXT: 7 Reasons Kids Need To Play Outside Daily

Sources: sciencedirect.com, askinglot.com, momjunction.com, healthline.com, va.gapitc.org, pgpedia.com.

The use of didactic and associative games in the development of cognitive processes and mental activity of preschoolers

For a number of years I have been paying great attention to the use of didactic games in working with children. After all, it is known that the game is the main activity of preschoolers, which not only creates an emotional mood, but also develops intellectual abilities [1], [2], [5], [14], [15].

Until 2004, the topic of my work was called "The use of didactic games in the development of preschool children. " And, including didactic games in various activities, I noticed that children really easily master educational material: they learn by playing. Comparison of the results of pedagogical diagnostics once again proved that the didactic game really develops both sensory abilities and cognitive mental processes, including the speech of children.

Therefore, from 2004 to 2006, I continued to work in more depth on the use of didactic games in joint activities with children, and in 2006, at the RMS of kindergarten teachers, I summarized my experience on the topic “Using didactic games in the development of mental processes in preschool children”, which was approved by colleagues. The results of the work really showed: children have better developed perception, attention, memory, moreover, arbitrary; mental activity became more active (children could easily talk on various topics, express their opinion, draw conclusions). Already in the older group, they learned to easily establish cause-and-effect relationships, to think logically. The development of creative imagination was manifested in the fact that children began to experience less difficulty in compiling stories, fairy tales, unusual stories, in creating images in drawing, modeling, working with natural and waste materials.

The need to sum up the results arose in the 2007-2008 academic year, when my students were preparing to study at school (preparatory group). Studying the contents of didactic games, I drew attention to the frequently encountered word of association. And, turning to the dictionary and scientific and methodological literature, I learned that the word "association" has several definitions: "association of persons or institutions of the same type of activity", "connection between individual ideas, in which one of the ideas causes another (by similarity, by adjacency)”, “connection of some units, elements (molecules, stars, plants)”, “associate,… establish… an association between something”, “associate… connect… in representation by association” [11], [13 ].

I involuntarily developed an interest in the topic of associations. And, observing how children study, play, communicate with each other and with adults, allowed me to note that my pupils had already developed the ability to compare, analyze, systematize and abstract to some extent. So I decided to continue my work on the development of these mental operations (analysis, synthesis, comparison, systematization, abstraction, etc.). And she directed her in-depth work to associative games as a means of developing the mental activity of preschoolers.

What is an "associative game"? This is a game that promotes the development of all mental processes and mental operations, which is especially important in older preschool age. In the process of analysis, information is decomposed into separate elements, and then a new image is synthesized from these “bricks”. In the course of the recreative imagination, this new image will correspond to the real counterpart. Associative thinking contributes to the development of creative imagination [5], [6], [7], [9], [10], [13].

Therefore, in my work on this topic, I used various types of games, but a special place belonged to desktop-printed and verbal. In addition, I myself began to develop them. If at the beginning of 2007 I played associative games together with children, then in the second half of the school year and before graduation, the children began to play on their own. Moreover, they themselves chose games and played, united in subgroups, pairs, individually. The rules of associative games required the children to demonstrate the ability to think, reason, defend their opinion, and sometimes even argue. Children learned to easily navigate in the past, present, future time, began to reckon with the opinion of another person, express their own judgments, proving their significance.

So, by the time the children went to school (2008), the results of diagnosing the level of knowledge and skills of preschoolers showed positive results in the development of mental operations: in the ability to analyze (78%), synthesize (67%), compare 94% (Table 1). And this is only a year and a half from the moment when I started working on the topic of associations.

Table No. 1. The level of development of mental operations

And if we take into account that at the beginning of attending the younger group of kindergarten (2004 - 2005 academic year), children had a low indicator (24%) of the development of cognitive mental processes, then a high indicator (100%) of the development of the cognitive sphere of graduates of the group also turned out to be significant and significant (Table 2).

Table No. 2. The level of development of mental processes

Thus, I concluded that with the help of didactic and associative games it is possible to achieve high results in the development of cognitive processes, mental activity of children, and also, at a fairly high level (85%), prepare preschoolers for schooling, form them high rate (98%) motivational readiness to influence changes in the personal sphere (only 2% of the children in the group have low self-esteem, 3% have a high level of anxiety).

Since June 2008, I have again started working with young children. And the initial diagnostics showed that the level of development of the cognitive sphere of babies is only 26% (sensation and perception - 29%, attention - 25%, memory - 24%, thinking - 25%, imagination - 25%). So, based on the positive results of my previous experience (graduate of 2008) in the use of associative and didactic games, I realized that with a new set of children, it is necessary to continue working on the methodological topic "Associative games as a means of developing the mental activity of preschoolers." In addition, the relevance of the topic was determined by a number of significant reasons, among which the most significant are the following:

• preschoolers today do not just play little or not at all - they do not know how to play the way their peers played only 5 - 10 years ago;
• hyperactivity of modern children, their inability to cooperate with other people (peers, adults), when the game should take place only according to the rules of the child himself - all this leads to a low level of development of the volitional sphere of preschoolers;
• "non-play" of adults with kids at home, ignoring by many parents the importance of play as an activity inherent in preschool age, leads to problems of interaction with the family, etc.

Therefore, the system of my work with children is built on the basis of psychological and pedagogical knowledge, and one of the conditions for its implementation is the leading type of children's activity - the game. In particular, the game is didactic, contributing to the development of mental processes, and associative, developing the mental activity of preschoolers. Based on practical material from the experience of teachers and psychologists (T.V. Bashaeva, A.A. Venger, A.Yu. Subbotina, etc.), I have selected a set of didactic games that contribute to subgroup and frontal games-classes with children preschool age on the development of the cognitive sphere and mental activity [2], [3], [5], [12], [14], [15], [16], [17].

It is didactic and associative games that allow me to make the learning process more vivid, entertaining, since this or that mental task contained in the game is solved in the course of an accessible and attractive activity for children. Only the game creates a relaxed atmosphere, enables children to behave naturally, while acquiring new knowledge (Appendix 1).

In joint games with the guys I try to be an equal partner, imperceptibly directing the course of the game. Such participation allows me not only to find out the knowledge of children, but also to study well the individual characteristics of each child, since the game reveals the character traits of each participant, both positive (perseverance, purposefulness, honesty) and negative (stubbornness, selfishness, boastfulness). I note for myself inactive, withdrawn guys who do not seek to participate in any activity, even together with their peers, and more often watch from the sidelines. I try to attract such guys to the game, giving them the easiest questions and tasks, encouraging them, encouraging them for the correct answer. As a result, the child develops self-confidence.

The success of a didactic game largely depends on how an adult manages it, and this role may change depending on the age of the children and the complexity of the game. So, if in the games of kids I try to be an equal partner (participant), explaining the rules of the game during the game, and with my actions, accompanied by words, I show the children the correctness of completing tasks, then my role in guiding the game of middle-aged children changes: more often I entrust the role of the leader children, I explain the rules of the game before it starts. Sometimes when I play for the first time, I take on the role of “controller” to see those guys who have problems. Summing up the results of the game, I focus the attention of preschoolers on the achievement of success for everyone, even if it was insignificant for someone. For example, in one I note the speed of solving the task, in the other - diligence, perseverance, in the third - the desire to play together with a friend, the ability to negotiate.

In the older group, together with the children, I participate in the game to find out how much its rules have been learned. Then I propose to play on my own, while observing the course of the game from the position of an “outsider”, I can act as an “arbiter” if I see that a conflict situation arises. In the games of 6-7-year-old children, the role of the leader is most often entrusted to one of the participants, since the guys are already more independent in choosing games, and in organizing the game activity itself, and selecting partners. If necessary, during the independent play activities of children, I act as an "adviser", "fair judge".

My many years of practical work in kindergarten allows me to note that many parents have difficulties in the development of their babies, so they often seek advice. Indeed, work on the development of cognitive processes and mental activity of preschool children will be ineffective if it does not find support in the family, if parents do not become active helpers interested in the success of their child.

Therefore, when planning work with parents on the use of games in the development of preschoolers, I use the following forms of interaction with the family: meetings, consultations, individual conversations, where I tell parents that it is didactic and associative games that help in solving many issues, about the importance of equal participation of adults in play with children. Through recommendations, memo sheets, I suggest that moms and dads play a new game at home with their child.

I try to hold parent meetings in an unconventional form, for example: workshops (“We play together”, etc.) and seminars - workshops where parents and children participate in games together, or adults get acquainted with specific games, rules, actions, record the course, the material used for a particular game, or moms and dads learn how to make board-printed games, or learn to play together with the children in a joint lesson. These forms of interaction with the active participation of the family convince parents that it is the game that helps in solving the problems of cognitive and speech development, the formation of the child's personality, etc. (Appendix 2).

I will highlight one more important point: the parents of my pupils annually actively help in creating a subject-developing environment for the group (we participate in competitions among preschool educational institutions), the acquisition of board games (games are chosen in accordance with the gradual complication and age of children).

Thus, the experience of my work allows me to draw the following conclusion that the development of the mental activity of the child and his cognitive processes is a laborious task, but fascinating and productive. Moreover, it requires the educator to be interested in participating in the children's play activities, and the need for cooperation with the family, because we are preparing children for schooling. And this training should be of a systematic, qualitative nature, affecting all areas: psychological, intellectual, personal, motivational.

Literature:

1. Artemova L.V. The world around in the didactic games of preschoolers. - M., 1992.
2. Bondarenko A.K. Didactic games in kindergarten. - M .: Education, 1985.
3. Wenger L.A., Wenger N.B., Pilyugina E.G. Education of the sensory culture of the child. - M., 1988.
4. Wenger L.A., Wenger A.L. Is your child ready for school. - M.: Knowledge, 1994.
5. Vygotsky L.S. Game and its role in the mental development of the child // - Questions of psychology. - No. 6. - 1966.
6. Vygotsky L.S. Pedagogical psychology. - M .: Education, 1991.
7. Children's practical psychology / Under the editorship of T.D.Martsinkovskaya. – M.: Gardariki, 2004.
8. Kozlova S.A., Kulikova T.A. Preschool Pedagogy. - M.: Academy, 2001.
9. Nemov R.S. Psychology. – M.: VLADOS, 2001.
10. Nizhegorodtseva N.V., Shadrikov V.D. Psychological and pedagogical readiness of the child for school. - M.: VLADOS, 2001.
11. Podlasy I.P. Pedagogy. – M.: VLADOS, 2001.
12. Poddyakov N.N. Sensory education in kindergarten. - M., 1977.
13. Psychology. Dictionary / Under the general. Ed. A.V. Petrovsky, M.G. Yaroshevsky. - 2nd ed., corrected. and additional - M.: Politizdat, 1990.
14. Radina E.I. Didactic games and activities with young children. - M. , 1970.
15. Sorokina A.I., Baturina E.G. Didactic games with rules in kindergarten. - M.: Enlightenment, 1970.
16. Subbotina L.Yu. The role of imagination in a child's life. - M., 1986.
17. Encyclopedia of education and development of a preschooler / Ed. L.Yu. Subbotina. - Yaroslavl: Academy of Development, 2001.

Card file of didactic games for associative thinking | Card file:

Associations are one of the ways to memorize material. After all, it often happens that when we see one object, we remember another. Then we say that the second object is associated in our minds with the first. It is easier for a child to explain this with a good example. Take 4 pictures (for example, heart, clock, snowflake, lightning) and lay them out in front of the child. The teacher formulates the task: “I will read the word to you, and you choose and show me one of the pictures, the image on which is associated, that is, associated with the named word. ”

Words: winter, love, time, thunderstorm.

After completing the task, ask the child about the principle by which he chose the pictures, and explain to him that he made this choice thanks to associations. Then you can move on to self-execution of exercises.

Didactic game "A number of associations"

The task is to build a number of associations to the subject. The exercise can be performed both individually and in a group, both orally and in writing. First, offer to come up with a series of associations to the words that you used to explain this concept, to show that winter is associated not only with a snowflake. And then suggest other words.

kettle - water, cup, kitchen, mother, breakfast, warmth

cat - ...

pharmacy - ...

forest - ...

school desk - ...

hair - ...

spoon - ...

Didactic game

"A number of associations to abstract concepts"

It is more difficult for a child to perceive and memorize abstract concepts. Therefore, in this version of the exercise, we propose to select associations with specific objects and examples for abstract concepts. Make associative series for the following words:

sport - stadium, TV, football, ball, jump rope, physical education lesson “Drawing a diagram”

For the lesson, prepare sentences, short texts, a piece of paper, a pencil.

Drawing diagrams is one of the ways of logical memorization, which must be taught to a child. Explain that a schematic drawing is a simple sketch that only the author can understand. First you need to show the child how a schematic drawing is made for one sentence. Consider examples that can be used to teach a child to schematically reflect the content of a sentence (all diagrams are exemplary, there may be others).

There is a big tree by the road.

A boy is skiing.

Didactic game "Keywords"

Purpose of the exercise: to learn to highlight key words in the text that will help to remember the content and subsequently reproduce it.

The teacher explains to the child that the keys to memorizing the text are words or phrases that convey facts (names of characters, geographical names, dates, events, their essence and meaning.

For the lesson, prepare excerpts from literary works, a sheet of paper, a pen.

Didactic game "Questions"

For the lesson, prepare excerpts from literary works and questions for them.

The child will have to answer questions about a text or an article in a textbook throughout the years of study. It is important to learn how to do this task correctly and understand that answering questions helps to comprehend the content of the text and thus remember it better, especially when the answer to the question is confirmed by words from the text. Such exercises are performed both orally and in writing. The child can not only answer the proposed questions, but also make up questions to the text on their own.

Didactic game “Make a plan”

For the lesson, prepare excerpts from literary works.

Another way of verbal-logical memorization is to plan the text. We offer a memo that will help the child learn to make a plan and retell the text using the plan.

1. Read the text, write down the words you do not understand and find out their meaning.

2. If the text has a title, then think about it, answer the question: “Why is the text called like that?”

3. Divide the text into several semantic parts.

4. Underline the key words in each part.

5. Ask questions for each part of the text.

6. Title each part of the text using keywords or questions.

7. Read separately and retell each part of the text reflected in the plan, mentally drawing pictures to the content.

8. Retell the entire text using the plan you have drawn up.

Using this memo, you can easily memorize the study material. To develop the ability to draw up a plan and retell the text on it, you can use excerpts from literary works.

Didactic game "Confusion"

For the lesson you will need any text printed on a piece of paper.

It is assumed that the child has already memorized this text. You cut the typed text into separate passages or sentences, mix it up, and give it to the child, who is tasked with reconstructing the sequence of passages or sentences so that the original text is obtained. The purpose of the exercise is to control memorization and fix the text in memory. If you need to remember the material well, transfer it from short-term memory to long-term memory, then this task with the same text can be performed several times with a time interval. For example, after 2-3 days.

Didactic game "Reincarnation"

The teacher offers the children to turn into, for example, cats. Asks a series of questions.

What do cats do?

How do they eat?

How do they sleep?

How do you wash your face?

How do they hunt?

Offers to transfer the "image of a cat" to yourself. That is, her front paws are our hands, we walk on all fours, lap milk, rub against the sofa, like cats; our words are meow, meow and mur, mur. We try to convey what we want to say with the help of them.

Didactic game "Reincarnation"

The teacher offers the children to turn into, for example, cats. Asks a series of questions.

What do cats do?

How do they eat?

How do they sleep?

How do you wash your face?

How do they hunt?

Offers to transfer the "image of a cat" to yourself. That is, her front paws are our hands, we walk on all fours, lap milk, rub against the sofa, like cats; our words are meow, meow and mur, mur. We try to convey what we want to say with the help of them.

Didactic game "Composing chains of associations"

Take turns with the child to name the word that "appears" in the head. For example, like this:

Teacher: trampoline.

Child: round.

Teacher: umbrella (there is an open umbrella in the room and it is round).

Child: rain.

Teacher: cold.

Child: refrigerator, etc.

While we play, we not only develop our thinking, but also laugh heartily, because sometimes the associations are very funny!

Didactic game "What does it look like"

The teacher names 2 words, for example, "car" and "dirt", and you need to make a chain of associations that will lead from one word to another. For example: car, wheels, puddle, dirt.

The teacher thinks of a word and says what topic it refers to (flower, transport, etc.), and the child tries to guess by asking questions by association. For example, “What does this transport have in common with a car?”, “What fruit does this flower look like in shape?” etc.

This game for the development of associative thinking is suitable for children from 5-6 years old.

Didactic game "Non-existent animal"

If the existence of hammerhead or needlefish is scientifically proven, then the existence of thimblefish is not excluded.

Let the child dream up: “What does a casserole fish look like? What does a scissor fish eat and how can a magnet fish be used?

Didactic game

“Continue the drawing”

A simple figure (eight, two parallel lines, a square, triangles standing on top of each other) must be turned into a part of a more complex drawing. For example, from a circle you can draw a face, a ball, a car wheel, glass from glasses. It is better to draw (or offer) options in turn. Who is bigger?

Didactic game "blot"

Material: sheets of paper with blots.

The famous Rorschach test is based on the principle of this game.

Children have to think of what the inkblot looks like and draw it. Whoever names the most items wins.

Didactic game "Animation of objects"

We must imagine ourselves as a new fur coat; lost mitten; mitten, which was returned to the owner; a shirt thrown on the floor; shirt neatly folded.

Imagine that the belt is a snake and the fur mitten is a mouse. What will be your actions?

Didactic game

“It doesn’t happen like that!”

Players take turns telling an incredible story, short or long. The winner is the player who manages to come up with five stories, hearing which, the audience will exclaim: “It doesn’t happen!”.

Didactic game

“Draw the mood”

The game is best used if the child is in a sad mood or, conversely, very cheerful. The child is asked to draw his mood, depict it on paper in any way.

Didactic game "Two Wizards"

This game is aimed at developing children's moral assessments. Children can play from the age of four.

One child is invited to become a "good wizard" and another "evil". Alternatively, one child can perform each role in sequence. First, they are invited to portray the facial expressions of good and evil wizards. Then list what kind of good and evil magic does one and the other. Then figure out how a good wizard will disenchant the bad deeds of an evil one.

The children can draw together or individually the good and evil wizards. One has a kind face, and the other has an evil face, and then paint the wizards so that it is immediately clear who is good and who is evil. Draw magical objects - a magic wand, a magic elixir, a magic hat, etc. The main thing is that it is immediately clear which is a good wizard, and which is evil.

Didactic game "Magic tree"

It would be better if a large branched bough is used for this game, which imitates a tree, but you can use a hanger or an artificial Christmas tree. A variety of items that were taken from children (scarves, pens, bows, etc.) are hung on it. Children are told that this is a magical tree and therefore everything that is hung on it becomes magical. Each child must go to the tree and remove from it an object belonging to a particular player. (For example, a “magic” object of Petya or Masha or Tanya, etc.) The child must guess which object belongs to the player and think of what kind of “magic” this object can perform. (For example, make the owner dance, or laugh out loud, or sing, or jump on one leg, etc.) If he guessed the owner of the item correctly, then the “magic” is performed by the owner of the item, and if he made a mistake, then the “magic action” is performed myself.

For younger children, an easier version of the Magic Tree game is possible. Pictures of various objects are attached to the drawn Tree. Then the child is asked to determine what can really be on the tree, and what is superfluous. For example: “Imagine that there is a magical tree on which everything that grows on trees at all (or maybe lives among the branches) can grow.

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