Abstract
This chapter will explain through concrete examples of literature for children how the same literary text through activities of speech exercises (lexical, semantic, and syntactic), enables their speech development, and contributes to the enrichment of the active lexical fund, and on the other hand, it creates a real context for the development of mathematical concepts. The literary text contributes to the visualization of mathematical concepts, which ensures transition from concrete to abstract concepts and ideas, and mathematical concepts become more acceptable as a result of their clarity and intelligibility. The mentioned activities, in addition to their educational function, build and acquire knowledge that is adopted with understanding in a real context familiar to their concept of the world, give rise to the development of children's imagination, inventiveness, creativity, inquiring mind, and autonomy, and make children grow fond of literature and mathematics from the earliest age.
TopIntroduction
A preschool period is a very important period in every individual's life. This is a period characterized by intense growth, learning, huge changes in children; a period in which a child lays the foundations of emotional, social, cognitive, motor and general development as a whole. The child of preschool age has excellent memory, intense sensomotor and iconic development, and so on. From the other side, it possesses a modest logical-analytical apparatus, it is not capable of abstracting, perceptively is fixed on the context in which it learns, the vocabulary is modest and even meager, it has problems with verbalization, it is egocentric. As the brain research shows, the most intense development takes place just in the first years of life so the existing opportunities should not be missed. Hence, numerous intentions on a global scale are focused on the emphasizing the importance of preschool training and education and investing in early development and education. Just many international organizations (OECD, UNESCO) emphasize the importance and justification of investment in early childhood education as the basis for later development and learning, and they point to the correlation between early education and later success in school (Dahlberg & Moss, 2005; OECD, 2001; Penn, 2002).
In recent years, there has been a number of initiatives that emphasize the importance of preschool mathematics education (Maričić & Stamatović, 2017, p. 6175). However, the question is how to organize the process of mathematical education so that it is in line with the child's abilities. The recommendations coming from National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) indicate that it is necessary to integrate mathematics with other activities and other activities with mathematics (NAEYC & NCTM, 2002, p. 7). From the very beginning, the process of preschool education has always refracted through various paradigms of education, epistemological settings, ideas, with the aim of making educational work with children as quality as possible, more suitable for each child, so that every child within it can achieve and maximally develop its potentials. The creation of concepts with children starting at this age is the result of a complex activity in which, according to Vigotsky (1983), all intellectual functions are involved. Today, learning and development in preschool education is characterized by a holistic approach in which the cognitive, social, physical, emotional, cultural and spiritual aspects of the child's progress are incorporated. The learning process is understood comprehensively, integratively, which, according to Lake, enables a rational transition through different subject areas and the integration of different elements into logical thought units that truly reflect the reality of life (Lake, 1994). In such an approach, children explore, adopt concepts spontaneously within a wider thematic unit embedded in a particular context, and which is often permeated with play and wealth of content from different subject areas (Maričić & Purić, 2013, p. 390). Learning within an integrated approach provides opportunities for more relevant, less fragmented and more stimulating experiences for children (Frykholm & Glasson, 2005; Koirala & Bowman, 2003).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Poetic Text: Type of literary work in which the main tool of expression is a verse. Verse can be rhymed and free. Rhymed verses are characterized by the correspondence of sounds at the end of the verse.
Picture Book: Richly illustrated work with a short text accompanying and explaining images.
Fairy Tales: Literary text comprising a series of motifs the main among which must have a fantastical character.
Integrative Approach: Approach to learning in which different subject areas are integrated, intertwining, and permeating each other.
Literature for Children: Literary works written for the youngest population – children. This fact is responsible for the specific characteristics of their structure. Topics, language, and style are adapted to the level of understanding and perception of children.
Game-Like Activity: Activity within which a process of learning and comprehension occurs by means of didactic games.
Speech Development: Segment of preschool education focused on the development of speech and expansion of the child’s active vocabulary.
Preschool Mathematics Education: Segment of preschool education dedicated to mathematics education at preschool level.
Literature Language: Language of literary works. It cannot be identified with a standardized national language, because it uses all linguistic units, both normative and non-normative which allow the author to express his/her artistic depiction of life and people.
Story: Type of prose literary work. It is characterized by the scope of its form and domination of the narrative. The plot is usually an event represented in a causal sequence.