Comparison of the tactile and visual perception of shape standards by children of middle preschool age

Abstract

It is at preschool age that the structure of intermodal interactions develops, combining auditory, visual and tactilekinesthetic modalities, and the mastery of its shortcomings (Murashova I. Yu.) depends on how timely these structural elements of polymodal perception develop, and how active and useful the relationship between them is; nevertheless, so far the tactile component of polymodal perception has been insufficiently studied and is very limited in its use in pedagogical practice. Besides, the educational process of today, which centers on the integration of various preschooler teaching methods, traditionally involves the diagnosis of children’s ability to perceive twoand three-dimensional geometric shapes using flat images. Thus, children who study according to standardized programs in institutions learn to perceive flat shapes while developing the perception of three-dimensional figures mainly spontaneously as it is excluded from the pedagogical process. However, we should not forget that planar images may not always accurately reflect real three-dimensional shapes. For example, a ball is reflected in a plane only through a circle, while a cone can be shown both by a circle and a triangle. This may affect the accuracy of diagnosis and the child’s understanding of the form as a whole. In order to verify the accessibility of the perception of three-dimensional shapes by children of middle preschool age, we performed a comparative study of the tactile and visual perception of flat and three-dimensional geometric shapes. It showed that three-dimensional shapes are better recognized tactilely by children compared to flat ones, while their visual recognition is as high; thus, tactile tests can be used for diagnosis alongside visual ones with respect to three-dimensional shapes and are more appropriate for childhood. To conduct research, we developed a method for diagnosing tactile-kinesthetic perception of threedimensional standards of form. In the future it can be used by teachers and specialists providing psychological and pedagogical support in their everyday work.