Among modern parents it is very fashionable to teach a child to count, read, draw or play the piano before he can walk. Schools and early development centers, creative studios, private kindergartens with innovative educational programs. Even “prenatal” education systems have emerged. The shelves of children's stores are bursting with a huge number of different educational aids and devices. Children's websites are full of advertising slogans such as “super child”, “little genius”, “early start”, “intellectual from the cradle”, etc. and so on. Following this fashion, young parents strive to purchase for their children not only the latest models of strollers and cribs, but also advanced techniques for their development. Why don’t you have Glenn Doman’s educational cards at home?! Well, how unadvanced you are - you don’t take care of your child at all! Of course, any parent wants and wants his child to be the very best - both smart and developed beyond his years. But at the same time, many, in pursuit of such early development, forget about the child himself. Why does a child need to be able to read at one and a half years old? Does a one-year-old child need to know colors? To the child or to the mother? After all, in this case she can boast of the child’s achievements in front of other mothers. And so that she does not blush for her child, a child a year, and sometimes earlier, is dragged to an early development school, even if the child resists with all his might. It's so fashionable! You can then, with a sense of fulfilled duty to your friends, say that her child goes to an early development school, and not be a “black sheep.” Well, then a music school, ballroom dancing, a school of fine arts, a sports section... The child is constantly told: “You have to!” Necessary! Necessary!" And even if at first the child liked to attend sections and go to classes, then gradually, when these classes turn into a routine, interest disappears, and a negative attitude appears not only towards classes, but also towards all learning in general. And all this because it is the parents who need it, not the child. The early development of a child is of greater interest to the mother and father, and not to the child. And what do most parents understand by the concept of “early development”? It should be noted that neither psychologists nor sociologists have yet given a clear definition of early child development. However, as numerous sociological surveys have shown, most parents understand early reading and arithmetic as early development, as well as the accumulation of some kind of encyclopedic knowledge... Any parent has examples of two- or three-year-old children in their family or friends who amaze everyone with their drawings , reading and reasoning “like adults.” But won't such early development be harmful for the child? Yes, there are studies confirming that in the first three years a child can perceive and remember a lot of information, so some methods suggest cramming it into him as much as possible at this age. But none of the physiologists has yet answered exactly what happens in the child’s brain during such development. Many child psychologists are now talking about the harmful effects of premature intellectual training on the emotional development and well-being of children; that by depriving a child of the opportunity to go through normal stages of development, he is left handicapped for the rest of his life, with a weakened psyche, an inability to play and an unwillingness to learn. The opinion about the dangers of early development is also supported by pediatric ophthalmologists. Yes, in the first years, not only the child’s brain, but also the child’s visual organs develop intensively. And if, from six months on, you slip in cards with dots, write words, and show special pictures, children who are naturally farsighted at an early age have to peer at these cards in order to earn the praise of their beloved mother. And isn’t this development happening at the expense of something that could develop itself during this time? And who knows that many of the currently fashionable early development methods were developed as one way to correct children who are lagging behind in development? Maria Montessori came up with her owna technique that is very popular at the moment in Russia, while working at a school for mentally retarded children, Glenn Doman was inspired to create a technique for hyperstimulating one of the channels of perception of people with organic brain lesions. If the notorious frames and cards made it possible to achieve progress from such “difficult” patients, one can imagine how quickly an ordinary, completely normal child will learn from them! Well, how can we not take into account the fact that often the quality of education in early childhood development schools, where they teach according to the methods of such famous authors, actually has nothing in common with the methods of the authors themselves. For example, it is now very fashionable to study according to the above-mentioned method of M. Montessori. But few people know what the method itself consists of and for what age it is suitable. Even fewer people know that the official center that issues a certificate to the teacher of this method is located in Holland, and not in Italy (where M. Montessori lived and taught). In our country there are very few teachers who have attended the full course and have the appropriate document, but we have a lot of centers, courses, kindergartens, and just teachers in the Montessori system. At best, such people will not harm your child or discourage him from learning. Waldorf school - parents who do not know the essence of this school are very surprised why their child is not very strong in mathematics and physics. No one asked the question that in this school the main attention is paid to the aesthetic development of children and harmony with nature. As for classes using the Glenn Doman method, you can now find advertisements for certified specialists. But what about the fact that at the G. Doman Institute only courses are held that teach parents how to deal with their children. The Suzuki method allows you to teach your child music at an early age. At the same time, the full course of training for teachers lasts 5 years and at the end of each year an exam is held to assign a certain level. Those. a teacher who passed the exam in the first year has the first level, in the second - the second, etc. Only starting from the third level, the teacher has the right to open his own Suzuki school. Associations publish a list of teachers who have passed the exams, indicating their level, home address and telephone number. These lists do not yet contain the names of Russian teachers, which makes us think. The same thing is happening in the market of educational toys and aids. Parents buy them in batches and are very upset when their beloved child does not show “proper intelligence.” Many of these benefits require very competent explanation and demonstration on the part of parents. Sometimes even the parents themselves do not understand the essence of the technique itself, but at the same time they try to apply it to their baby. In addition, very often parents, without taking into account the age of their children, buy educational toys “for growth”. What is a construction set for one age group is just a set of figurines of unknown color and taste for another. By the time a child “grows up” in development to these toys, they may no longer have many elements. How many and what kind of toys a child should have and how to play with them can only be suggested by a competent specialist, but there are also those that have not lost their usefulness over the years. Here, for example, is a matryoshka doll. So many games and educational activities with her! It makes it possible to teach mathematics, logic, body parts, colors and much, much more. What about the puppet theater? How to get a capricious person to get dressed? Yes, it's easy if you put a bear on your hand. In mini-performances, you can teach your child to say “thank you” without lectures or moralizing; you can talk about good and evil; about who lives in the forest and who says what. A lot of things can be taught in a way that a child can understand. At the same time, he will watch and listen with bated breath. Thus, early development methods have their ardent defenders, but also no less fierce opponents. The first insist that the development of a child’s brain occurs in leaps and bounds, and what is missed in the first three years of life is then not worth anything..