STRATEGIES OF UNDERSTANDING NEW SENSORIMOTOR TASKS BY PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

The article substantiates the feasibility of applying a strategic-activity approach to the investigation of the specifics of preschoolers’ process of understanding new sensorimotor tasks. It analyzes the specifics of using the terms “praxis”, “gnosis,” and “sensorimotor”. A definition of the concept “sensorimotor task” is provided. The stages of understanding a sensorimotor task by early-age preschool children are identified: establishing the primary sensory-modal characteristics of the object with which the child acts; establishing semantic connections among objects in space by the child, in particular the object’s position relative to themselves and relative to other objects; creating an integral image – an understanding of how to act; implementing the image of the motor program (the planned motor model) while simultaneously orienting to somatosensory, auditory, and visual information; and transforming the motor model during its execution under the influence of new, varying sensory stimuli. These stages are regarded as components of an understanding strategy, and their presence indicates the strategic character of a child’s understanding of a new sensorimotor task. The types of understanding strategies employed by preschoolers are described, namely: primary sensorimotor analogizing; primary sensorimotor combining; and primary sensorimotor reconstructing. It has been established that children resort to sensorimotor combining and reconstructing only when the task conditions change significantly. It is shown that the level of strategy implementation is determined by the specifics of the interaction between sensory, perceptual, and imaginal images.