Japanese technique training for children. Education in Japan: interesting facts

MAKOTO SHICHida: “ALL CHILDREN ARE BORN GENIUS”

Japanese professor Makoto Shichida- creator of the most popular proprietary method in Japan early development children. He can safely be called a pioneer of accelerated learning for children, and his teaching methods are popular not only in Japan, but also abroad.

The scientist made a huge contribution to science and medicine with his research in the field of studying human brain. Thanks to almost forty years scientific activity and twenty years of practical work, he literally made a revolutionary breakthrough in education, which changed attitudes towards children, their mental abilities and the methods of their education. Makoto Shichida's revolutionary early development method includes techniques to stimulate children's brains. Makoto Shichida I am convinced that brain stimulation in children early age Helps children develop special abilities. The earlier you start working with your child, the higher the chance of developing his genius abilities and discovering the talents hidden in him between the ages of 6 months and 3 years.

Currently, according to the early development method of Makoto Shichida, there are already about 500 developmental children's centers in Japan, of which more than 400 were founded by Shichida himself.

IN lately Makoto Shichida's system captures everyone's attention more admirers among parents, teachers and in the countries of the post-Soviet space.

IN educational institutions working according to the Shichida method, children from 6 months to 6 years study. The author considers this age range optimal for training according to his system.

The scientist is sure that between the ages immediately after birth and up to 3 years, the child’s brain works as a storage device. After all, children during this period grasp everything on the fly, are filled with a thirst for knowledge, perceive and process huge amounts of information, like small computers, perfectly remembering details. And therefore at this time age period main task parents and educators stimulate all five senses of the child and provide all the needs for his development.

According to the early development method of Makoto Shichida, those children who are developed intellectually and physically from childhood can in the future become either famous scientists or athletes. Kids grow and mature much faster than parents think. Until the age of three, the right hemisphere of the brain dominates in a child. At the age of 3 years, the left hemisphere of the brain takes a dominant position.

Right hemisphere of the brain little man begins its rapid development in the womb. It is known that the right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for the subconscious and unconscious, the left hemisphere is the conscious hemisphere. In one of his books, Shichida writes that the right hemisphere has a greater memory “capacity” than the left. But right and left hemisphere brains develop differently and in different times. The right hemisphere of the brain is constantly resetting old information memory to make room for new information, while memory from the left hemisphere is never removed. Therefore, by developing the right hemisphere, parents open up the possibility of easier learning and development creativity in children. The right hemisphere is also responsible for visual and spatial processing, as well as the ability to see a problem from several aspects.

According to the scientist, by the age of six a child’s brain is almost completely formed; more precisely, by the age of six, about 80% of brain cells are already developed. This makes it possible for a child to successfully develop speed reading before the age of six, photographic memory, rare musical talents and math skills, empathy and intuition. It is at this age that a child has the best ability to learn languages.

By the age of ten, a child’s brain is almost completely formed, approximately 90%. Therefore, making changes at an older age is very difficult, and sometimes impossible. And develop sensory perception in general it is possible only in the early preschool age. That is, the older the child gets, the worse he learns and remembers information.

From all of the above, we can highlight the basic principles of the Makoto Shichida method.

PRINCIPLES OF THE MAKOTO SHICHIDA METHOD

All children are born geniuses;

A strong bond between parent and child is essential;

The dominance of the right hemisphere of the brain in young children is unique opportunity for training;

In 1954, there lived a mathematics teacher, Toru Kumon, in Japan, and one day his son Takeshi brought home a bad grade in arithmetic. Mr. Kumon was not at a loss and began to give his son every day simple tasks for addition, which fit on one piece of paper. Soon Takeshi became the best in the class, and the parents of his classmates took their children to classes with his father.

60 years have passed. Now KUMON training centers are located all over the world - in almost 50 countries. More than 4 million children study in centers using special workbooks.

In Russia, notebooks from the KUMON center are published by the Mann, Ivanov and Ferber publishing house. We talked with the head of the children's department "MYTH.Childhood" Anastasia Kreneva about what is different Japanese technique development of children from Russian; what and how KUMON notebooks teach and what other educational aids for children are available in Russia.

- What is KUMON and what are their “tricks”?

KUMON is a Japanese method of developing skills that a child should usually develop before school. At KUMON centers they teach how to hold a pencil, draw lines, cut, glue, count, and write numbers and letters.

In total, there are more than 50 workbooks in the series that we publish - each for a specific skill and age. The notebooks contain 40 tasks, and they are designed for a month or two of lessons. The main thing is to practice every day, consistently and little by little. This is very important. The key principle of the entire technique is consistent complication. It’s always the simplest first, then more and more complex. This is what distinguishes them from most domestic publications.

So, for example, you can often find this: you open a notebook to prepare your hand for writing, and one of the first tasks there is to circle a flower or a sun along a dotted line. And the question immediately arises: how can a two-year-old child, who still doesn’t even know how to properly hold a pencil, do this? This is difficult - you need to draw a circle and straight lines going under different angles. Not every adult can handle it well. It's different at KUMON. It all starts with very, very simple things. First the child learns to drive short line, in the next task the line lengthens, then one bend appears, then several, etc. That is, according to the logic of the Japanese, the task with the sun would be at the very end of the notebook...

Another feature is that KUMON is not only a mechanical practice of a skill. These notebooks teach the child to be independent. Parental participation here is reduced to zero. Thanks to the illustrations and page design, all tasks are intuitive for the child. He opens the notebook and does everything himself, without prompting. Plus, the Japanese constantly repeat to parents that children must be praised. When you praise children, it increases their self-esteem, they begin to believe in their abilities, and the activities themselves only make them feel better. positive emotions. They themselves want to exercise every day. And this is very important - after all, this is how the child also develops good habit to classes.

- I heard that the Japanese even think about the thickness of paper for children. Is that so?

Yes, they thought of everything possible. Notebooks for children two years old - small format; notebooks for older children - large. The thickness of the paper is also different. For example, notebooks for children use the thickest paper. How older child, the thinner the paper. Everything is done to make it comfortable for the child to write. At two years old, it is still difficult for him to hold a pencil and draw a line, so he presses hard on the paper. If the paper is thin, it will tear, and this will upset the baby. There will be no satisfaction from the completed task. And next time he won’t want to study.

Another example of thoughtfulness, and far from obvious, is in the illustrations for the assignments. At the beginning of the notebook, the tasks are very simple, and the illustrations for them are bright, with many details. The child perceives it all as a game and immerses himself in it. The further you go, the more difficult the tasks become. And the picture becomes less saturated and colorful. Why? Here it’s also very simple: what more difficult task, those stronger for the child you need to concentrate. Nothing should distract him.

- So the reason for the popularity of KUMON is that everything is very thought out there?

Yes, but not only. It’s also about the emotions of parents who see real result. The child did not know how, for example, to hold a pencil or use scissors. He did 40 exercises - and now he can do it perfectly.

By the way, we made a discovery for ourselves. It turned out that our children have problems with cutting. The most popular notebook in the entire series is “Learning to Cut.” In principle, there is an explanation for this. Analogs that are offered on the market today are notebooks with applications. But how can a child cut out a circle or square for an applique if he doesn’t yet know how to cut paper? In KUMON, everything is sequential: first we learn to make simple cuts, short, along thick lines, then the lines become thinner and longer, angles, arcs, waves appear, and only then circles and lines of complex shapes.

Another trick is that in cutting books the child doesn’t just cut out - at the end he gets some kind of toy that he can then play with. For example, some kind of snake that he cut out in a spiral. Or, for example, you cut out a blanket and cover the drawn girl with this blanket.

- What types of educational notebooks are there in Russia?

Educational children's notebooks can be divided into two types. The first one is notebooks. integrated development. These are such development tools general. Here, within the framework of one notebook or series, everything can be: mathematics for kids (shapes, opposites, correspondence, etc.), and general development speeches (groups of words by topic), and creative tasks(finish drawing, molding, gluing). The child develops, learns new things, of course. But the process is completely different, this intellectual development. Such notebooks do not “set your hand” and do not teach you exactly how to cut out, as KUMON does. Or, for example, notebooks with stickers are quite popular now. They are wonderful and interesting in their own way. The tasks here are also for general development and, in parallel, for the development of fine motor skills. That is, usually you first need to think, decide what and where to glue, and only then glue.

In Moscow, Elena Kleshcheva told Letidor what it is mental arithmetic and why every person needs it.

Mental arithmetic is a program for the comprehensive development of children's intelligence and thinking, based on the formation of the skill of rapid mental calculation

Children learn in class quick counting using a special counting board (abacus, soroban). Teachers explain how to correctly move knuckles on knitting needles so that kids can almost instantly get an answer to complex example. Gradually, the attachment to the abacus weakens and the children imagine the actions they performed with the abacus in their minds.

The program is designed for 2-2.5 years. First, the children master addition and subtraction, then multiplication and division. A skill is acquired and developed through repeated repetition of the same actions. The method is suitable for almost all children, the teaching principle is from simple to complex.

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Classes take place once or twice a week and last one to two hours.

The ancient abacus abacus, which children use to count, has been known for more than 2.5 thousand years. Children learn to count using special abacus. It is known that they were used in Ancient Rome. IN modern world Counting on the abacus is common in Japan, China, India, Malaysia, and other countries.

In Japan, abacus counting is included in the official school curriculum.

For more than 50 years, mental arithmetic has been part of the public education system in Japan. Interestingly, after finishing school, people continue to improve their mental arithmetic skills. In the Country rising sun mental arithmetic is considered something like a sport. There are even competitions held on it. In Russia, international tournaments in Mental Arithmetic are now also held annually.

Mental arithmetic develops mechanical and photographic memory

When children count, they use both sides of their brain at once. Mental arithmetic develops photographic and mechanical memory, imagination, observation, improves concentration.

Increasing general level intelligence. This means that it is easier for children to absorb large amounts of information in a short time. Success in foreign languages ​​is immediately visible. Now you don’t have to spend the whole day memorizing poetry and prose.

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For slower students, reaction speed increases.

There are also unexpected results. One day a boy came to the center and played tennis. The mother said that her son has problems with coordination of movements. Unexpectedly, they were solved precisely through intensive mental arithmetic courses.

Mental arithmetic is more difficult for adults; the optimal age for starting classes is 5-14 years

You can develop your brain using mental arithmetic at any age, but best results can be achieved up to 12–14 years of age. Children's brain very plastic, mobile. IN at a young age it is where neural connections are most actively formed, which is why our program is easier for children under 14 years of age.

How older man, the more difficult it is for him to abstract from his experience and knowledge and simply trust the abacus. I mastered this technique at the age of 45 and constantly doubted whether I was doing it right or whether there was a mistake. This greatly interferes with learning.

But what harder for a person master this account, the more useful it will be.

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It’s as if a person overcomes himself, and every time he does it better and better.

The classes are not in vain; the brain of an adult is also actively developing.

Just don’t expect the same results from an adult as from a child. We can learn the technique, but we won’t be able to count as quickly as a second grader does. As experience shows, optimal age, from which it is better to start classes - 6 and 7 years.

The best results are achieved by those who regularly exercise at home.

A prerequisite for classes is daily training on the abacus. Just 10-15 minutes. Children need to practice the formula that the teacher gave them in class and bring their actions to automaticity. Only in this case will the child learn to count quickly. The organizational role of parents, who need to monitor regular training, is important here.

Mental arithmetic is a unique technique preschool development, which is a training in counting and helps develop the child’s thinking. The classes harmoniously develop both hemispheres of the brain, thanks to which even strong humanists can “click” problems and equations in the blink of an eye.

The method is based on the Japanese abacus called soroban. This unusual device is rarely seen in our area. It is a “calculator” on which only unambiguous representation of numbers is possible. This avoids confusion as with regular bills.

These abacus have an odd number of spokes arranged vertically that represent one number. There are five dominoes strung on each knitting needle. The four dominoes at the bottom are ones, and the top one represents a five.

Benefits of mental arithmetic

Kids learn Japanese mechanical abacus very quickly. It should be noted that this device has an amazing effect on the development of thinking in children.

1. Classes using the method force the imaginative right hemisphere of the brain to solve mathematical problems. This allows you to simultaneously use two hemispheres, which means that the brain works twice as efficiently, practicing mental mental arithmetic.

2. People who learned to count on Soroban can easily carry out complex calculations in the mind in the shortest period of time. Masters can do this easily, even without having a soroban in front of them. Even a child can fold it in a couple of seconds three digit numbers at the beginning of training. And with practice, they will learn to operate with numbers with five zeros.

3. Children who master the methodology show not only success in mathematics, but also in learning in general. oral counting. Teachers and psychologists note: mental arithmetic improves the child’s concentration and attention, trains observation, memory and imagination, as well as creativity, out-of-the-box thinking baby. The child literally grasps information on the fly and analyzes it with ease.

Training using the method of mental calculation

IN curriculum primary schools Japan has even introduced a subject - mental mathematics, experts say on their website children's center development of AMAKids.. Thanks to this technique, erudite children are annually among the winners mathematical olympiads. Also educational programs with the use of sorban are provided in China and Malaysia.

We are also opening schools for studying Japanese mental arithmetic. It is recommended to start training at the age of 4-11 years. It is during this period that the child’s brain actively “gains momentum” and develops. Which means to achieve active work both hemispheres quite easily. In adulthood, mental arithmetic serves as a method for preventing atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's. But such phenomenal results as the kids demonstrate can no longer be achieved.

Many parents worry that mixing regular and Japanese math will confuse their child and cause him or her to fall behind the basic curriculum at school. In fact, practice shows that children who were previously in exact sciences there weren’t enough stars, after a couple of months of training they showed good results and were ahead of their peers.

The Japanese method of mental calculation is an original approach to teaching, which is just beginning to develop in our country. This technique not only teaches kids how to instantly add and subtract numbers. Its main advantage is that it develops mental abilities child, opening up new intellectual possibilities for him.

Prepared by Katerina Vasilenkova

The counting technique called Soroban is now spreading at the speed of light. Its goal is to develop the mental abilities of children, evenly using the left and right hemisphere. This technique is more than 25 years old in Japan, and has been working in post-Soviet countries for 3 years. But the most interesting thing is that the accounts on the basis of which it was built are already more than 2.5 thousand years old. And only now, from the distant countries of Asia, this counting tool is beginning to spread throughout the world.

What is an abacus?

Abacus (Abacus), or Soroban, is an ancient abacus that was used in the ancient countries of Asia and Europe. In China they were called abacus (in Latin “abacus”), in Japan - Soroban. However, they were also used in Ancient Rome and Greece. The abacus changed somewhat depending on the country where they were used, but the essence remained the same.

The abacus consists of a frame divided by a crossbar. At the top there is one line of bones. Each bone in it means “five”. At the bottom there are rows of seeds, each of which has 4 seeds. Each of them stands for "one".

The bones on the Soroban, or Abacus, abacus are specially sharpened so that children, by sorting through them, develop fine motor skills. Abacus abacus stands for units, tens, hundreds, thousands and millions. With the help of Soroban, children quickly master mental calculation and can even multiply multi-digit numbers.

How are classes going?

The method of teaching using Soroban abacus, or Mental Arithmetic, allows you to develop children’s abilities to unprecedented heights. The main tool for this is the Abacus abacus. At the first stage, children learn to use an abacus.

In the second stage, children imagine the Soroban abacus in their minds. Those. the child begins to imagine Soroban in front of him and perform mental calculations. In this case, 3 mathematical operations are mastered:

• addition;
• subtraction;
• multiplication;

The training lasts 2 years. It is best to start training when a child is between 5 and 11 years old. This age is considered optimal. But this does not mean that the Soroban technique is not accessible to older children and adults, it just may take longer to learn.

Classes at Soroban centers take place for 2 hours, once a week. Children are given homework assignments. If they are completed, the trainer opens access to the next ones. A quarter of an hour a day is enough to complete the task. The program can be adjusted individually depending on how each child is doing.

How to use?

To learn how to use abacus, you need to know what they are. The accounts consist of:

• framework;
• dividing strip;
• upper seeds;
• lower bones.

In the middle is the center point. The upper tiles represent fives, and the lower tiles represent ones. Each vertical strip of bones, starting from right to left, denotes one of the digits:

• units;
• tens;
• hundreds;
• thousands;
• tens of thousands, etc.

To set aside a number, you need to move the bone to the dividing line on the abacus, according to numerical designation corresponding to the digit of each digit. For example, to set aside the number 165, you need to move the top bone on the first line to the right (it means five), on the second line – the top and one bottom bone (5+1=6), on the third line – one bottom one. This is how we get the required number.

Further calculations will be accompanied by the movement of the seeds along the lines according to the digits.

What does mental arithmetic give?

Japanese abacus called Soroban, they teach not only to count, although children achieve unprecedented success in this. Kids can easily calculate 10-digit numbers in their heads, multiply and subtract. But a quick mental calculation is not main goal.

• ability to concentrate;
• activation of auditory and visual memory;
• improving intuition and ingenuity;
• ability to solve problems out of the box;
• manifestation of independence and self-confidence;
• realization of abilities and a successful career in the future.

The technique is based on the power of imagination. It is thanks to it that it is possible to speed up thinking and establish accelerated connections between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Children who studied using the Soroban method quickly master foreign languages, do well at school, are more purposeful.

Here you can watch a video of students studying at the Soroban™ school