It is unlikely that anyone will agree that a modern person does not need a good memory and a rich imagination. But what if we develop them purposefully, starting from childhood? It turns out that teachers have long developed such methods, and they all bear the sonorous name of “eidetic”.
What is “eidetic” and “eidetism”
Eidetism is a special kind of human memory, which is based on remembering details through visual images and impressions. Accordingly, eidetics is a whole teaching technique with which you can develop fantasy and visual memory.
The essence of eidetism is already in its name, since the word “eidos” is translated from Greek as “image”.
Why do we need eidetics: the advantages of the technique
Eidetics began to take shape in Germany in the 1920s-1940s. At the same time, researchers from Melbourne began to conduct experiments to find out what percentage of children from 8 to 15 years old and adults have a good visual memory. The results were surprising: 40% of children are excellent eidetics, while among adults they are only 7%. Many years later, the study was repeated and showed that the percentage of eidetic children decreased significantly.
What does it mean? It turns out that the dominance of mass culture and the variety of vivid visual information have a negative effect on visual memory and imagination. If earlier children had to fantasize while reading a fairy tale, now there is no need for this: you can just watch a cartoon on a tablet.
And indeed: there is more information, so the interest of children in new knowledge has decreased. At school, this leads to endless cramming, apathy, unwillingness to learn, problems with academic performance, performing creative tasks, memorizing poems. In everyday life — to the inability to remember emergency numbers and parents, their own address.
Eidetic techniques are designed specifically to help the child learn to reproduce information using visual images and their own imagination.
So, regularly performing eidetic exercises, the child will be able to:
- memorize poems or small prose texts without hesitation and difficulties;
- memorize and reproduce dance movements in the desired sequence;
- memorize numbers, numbers, formulas;
- creative approach to essays, accurately reproducing the details of read works, paintings, photographs;
- invent your own fairy tales, poems, stories using associative rows of words or images;
- concentrate attention;
- enrich vocabulary.
Techniques and simple options for eidetic exercises
Despite complicated names, eidetic techniques are easy to use. That is why it is important to use them not only for teachers, educators, but also for parents. Regular recourse to various exercises will help moms and dads significantly develop imaginative thinking, speech, imagination, visual memory of their children.
Visual rendering. The essence of the method is that the contour of a figure, symbol or sign must be supplemented with details and turned into some kind of object. For example, you can draw the number 8 on a piece of paper and invite the child to draw details for it so that it turns out an animal or thing (glasses, a snake). This technique is especially good for memorizing numbers and the alphabet.
mental drawing. The essence of technology is to build a fantasy reality. For example, when memorizing the poem “Winter Morning”, you can invite the child to describe the weather outside the window, the situation in the house, smells and sounds. The technique is perfect for memorizing poems and texts.
Acroverbal technique. She is especially loved by kids, because her essence is to invent or memorize existing short rhymes that help to remember some information. For example, in school practice, a rhyme helps to remember spelling:
“Either”, “something”, “that”, “something“
gotta pull it off!
Many parents probably remember that the hosts of the popular Baby Monitor educational program used this method. She appeared on All-Union Radio in the 1970s and 1980s under the guidance of the “radio wizard” Nikolai Vladimirovich Litvinov, and her “educational” poems and songs were universally loved even by school teachers.
Mnemonics. This technique is designed to facilitate memorization through associations. For example, to remember the order of cases at school, the phrase “Ivan gave birth to a girl, ordered to drag a diaper” is often used, where each initial letter of the word repeats the first letter of the case name.
Chain technology. Its essence is that, with the help of associations, the child can connect several objects. You can offer to make a short story of 10–12 completely different words. This technique perfectly develops imagination, logic and expands the vocabulary.
In the eidetic system, you can find many other diverse principles and techniques that have a beneficial effect on the development of visual memory and creativity.
We have previously written about the intricacies of mental arithmetic and the pros and cons of early childhood development.
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