From the author: published in the collection of articles “Psychological support and stimulation of the general development of children with hearing impairments in a specialized preschool educational institution.” - Volgograd, Peremena, 2002Orlyanskaya I.A., Kresteva V.B. THE INFLUENCE OF ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES ON THE SENSORY DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENTS A child first learns about the world in a sensory way. The sensory world is limitless, as it is devoid of stereotypes. The child feels free in it, and the world opens up to him as if in the process of drawing - gradually and bewitchingly. Taking into account all the factors of a child’s development, experts have come to the conclusion that the preschool period is one of the most important and responsible in a person’s life, that it is during this period there is a desire to comprehend the world and oneself. The period of preschool childhood is a period of intensive sensory development of the child - when his orientation in the external properties and relationships of objects and phenomena, in space and time is improved. Sensory development is especially important for children deprived of hearing, since it becomes almost the main factor contributing to the mental development of children with hearing impairments. By perceiving objects and acting with them, the child begins to more and more accurately assess their color, shape, size, weight and temperature, surface properties, etc. Children's ability to determine direction in space, the relative position of objects, the sequence of events and the time intervals separating them is significantly improved. Already at an early age, the child accumulates a certain stock of ideas about the various properties of objects. Individual ideas begin to play the role of samples with which the child compares the properties of new objects in the process of their perception. In preschool age, a transition occurs from the use of such object samples, which are the result of a generalization of the child’s own sensory experience, to the use of generally accepted sensory standards. Familiarization with them and how to use them occupies a central place in the child’s sensory development. Mastering sensory standards not only significantly expands the scope of properties cognizable by a child, but also makes it possible to reflect the relationship between them. Preschoolers’ mastery of sensory standards begins with familiarization with individual geometric shapes and colors. Such familiarization occurs mainly in the process of mastering various types of productive activities. Even in cases where the child is not specifically taught to identify types of properties that correspond to generally accepted standards, when drawing, designing, doing appliqué, laying out mosaics, a deaf preschooler deals with materials containing the necessary samples. So, when drawing, a child uses paints of different colors; when constructing, he uses triangular, rectangular, square elements of different sizes; mosaics and appliqué materials also feature multi-colored geometric shapes, etc. When teachers help a child with drawings and constructions, they also name the basic shapes and colors, also stimulating the speech development of a deaf child. The assimilation of sensory standards, as well as the formation of any ideas about the properties of objects, occurs as a result of perception actions aimed at examining the shape, color, size and other properties and relationships that should acquire the meaning of samples. However, this is not enough. It is also necessary for the child to identify the main types of properties used as standards from all the others, and begin to compare the properties of various objects with them. It should be noted that for preschoolers with hearing impairment, visual perception becomes the leading one when familiarizing themselves with the environment. During preschool childhood, sensory standards are mastered, focus, planning, controllability increase,awareness of perception. In addition, with the establishment of relationships with thinking and developing speech, perception is intellectualized. Consistent familiarization of children with different types of sensory standards and their systematization is one of the main tasks of sensory education for preschoolers with hearing impairments. The basis of such familiarization is the organization of children’s actions to examine and memorize the main varieties of each property. The development of ideas about standard varieties of properties occurs in close connection with teaching children to draw, sculpt, design, that is, with those types of activities that pose increasingly complex tasks for the child’s perception and create conditions conducive to the assimilation of sensory standards. Development tasks for children with hearing impairments in the process of learning visual arts for us were: the development of interest, attention, curiosity, emotional response to the aesthetic properties and qualities of objects in the surrounding world, to the aesthetic side of natural phenomena and some social phenomena, the formation of the ability to recognize a picture, drawing, to recognize familiar images of objects in the depicted , living objects, understand the plot, react emotionally and aesthetically, empathize with the characters, familiarity with works of applied art that make up the aesthetic environment, forming emotional responsiveness, artistic insight, vision of such means of expression as color, color rhythm. Traditionally, the main task is to develop children's interest and desire to engage in visual arts. At the same time, significant attention in classes is paid specifically to the sensory and sensorimotor education of preschoolers. Thus, children learn the beauty of color spots, the expressiveness of lines, and the volume of plastic images primarily in the process of their own artistic experience. The instrumental-material nature of visual activity requires attention to the development of hand motor skills. This is not a technical question, but a task of developing the very ability for visual activity. The teacher pays special attention to the formation in children of the foundations of a culture of visual activity: fulfilling the basic requirements for the external side of drawing, modeling, appliqué; rules of conduct when performing artistic work, handling materials and tools of artistic work. It is very important to use in fine arts classes techniques and methods that correspond to the level of psycho-emotional development and sensorimotor coordination of the child. Full sensorimotor development helps relieve fatigue by reducing overstrain of sensory and motor systems, which helps strengthen mental status and regulate behavioral reactions. At the same time, while improving the child’s locomotor (movement in space) function, we simultaneously develop his intellectual functions. A preschooler is introduced to the world of art for the first time. There is an interest in the aesthetic perception of the environment: natural phenomena, living objects, toys, objects. Ideas about the aesthetic characteristics of objects in the surrounding world are formed: basic and bright contrasting colors (red, yellow, green, blue), expressiveness and properties of shapes (roundness, rectangularity, stability, mobility), sizes (large/small, long/short), surfaces (fluffy, smooth, rough, etc.). A deaf child learns to relate images of familiar objects and living objects through vision to drawings and illustrations. Ideas appear about their graphic representation - shape, size, other expressive means of image: bright, elegant - joyful color (light) or sad (dark), smoothness and roundness of lines, straightness. A child’s cognition of the surrounding world and its objects, their fundamental geometric, kinetic and dynamic properties, the laws of space and time occurs according to a number of schemes: Cognition through gross motor skills. This is the interaction diagram.