2. D E F I NATI ON
The development of the mental abilities and capacities which
helps an individual to adjust his behaviour to the ever changing
environmental conditions or to accomplish a task that needs
complex cognitive abilities is referred to as intellectual or mental
development
3. AREAS OF MENTAL
DEVELOPMENT
The following are the major areas of mental
development
1 . Sensation and Perception
2 . Concept formation
3 . Attention and Interest
4. Development of Imagination
5. Language Development
6 . Development of Memory
7 . Development of Problem solving ability
4. 1 . SENSATION AND PERCEPTION
Sensation is the elementary impression gathered through sense
organs.
The elementary impressions gathered by sesnse organs when
interpreted by giving defenite meaning in the light of the effects of
past experience is called perception
5. SENSATION AND PERCEPTION
• Sensation is sensory impression while perception is the
interpreted form of sensory impression.
• While sensation depends mainly on the sense organs , in
perception brain also plays a major role.
• Sensation and perception are two aspects of a single
process.Though we can explain them seperately, we cannot
experience them seperately in actual situations
6. 2 . CONCEPT FORMATION
Concepts are the results of our sensational and
perceptual experiences. It is the generalised
mental image of the objects, phenomena or
events perceived earlier. It stands for a general
class and not for a particular
object,phenomenon or event . It is generalized
idea firmed about them,on the basis of
similarities or commonalities in attributes.This
helps in understanding the meaning and
nature of a specific set of objects, phenomena
or events that possess those commom
7. THE PROCESS OF CONCEPT FORMATION HAS FOUR
IMPORTANT PHASES.
They are :
Sensation
Perception
Abstraction
Generalization.
8. • Meaninful sensation lead to perception
• Perception provide oppurtunities for getting mental images of the
things or phenomena.The mind analyses these images and
synthesizes them with a view to find out what is common to all,
neglecting individual differences.This process of identifying
similarities and fusing them is called abstraction
After making such observations leading to abstraction for a number
of times the child is able to form a general idea about the set
observed on the basis of the common characteristics or attributes
possessed by all the numbers of that set.This genrralisation leads to
the formation of a concept
9. 3. ATTENTION AND INTEREST
• Attention can be defined as a process which
compels an
individual to select some particular stimulus
according
to his interest and attitude,out of the multiplicity
of stimuli present in the environment.
• Attention is not any specific mental power that
makes
the selection possible,but it is just the
process of selection itself
• Interest is a motivating force that impels one for
giving intense attention to an activity.
• Interest is a motivating force that impelse one for
giving intense attention to an activity
• Interest is the mother of attention, and attention is
interest in action.Both are indispensable factors of
child development
10. 4 . DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGINATION
Imagination is based on
images.When one closes his eyes
and forms a mental picture of a
distant friend,he gets a visual
image.When he get a mental
replica the friend’s voice , that is
an auditory image .A mental
picture is called an ‘imagery’
11. 5 . LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Language development is an intrinsic part of intellectual
development which reflects cognitive achievements of the
child.One of the main functions of language is to facilitate
communication.Language is also intimately associated with
cognitive functions like thinking, reasoning,problem solving,etc
.Speech and vocabulary are two of the important areas in
language development
12. 6.DEVELOPMENT OF
MEMORY
Human beings are endowed with
higher intellectual abilities.Memory is
one such special attribute of man .At
birth there is little memory .The child
shows signs of memory from the early
childhood .The memory which the
child possesses during his young
age,is generally rote memory.He
enjoys repetition and seldom uses
logic and insight in memorizing a thing
13. 7 .DEVELOPMENT OF PROBLEM
SOLVING ABILITY
Life of an individual is always confronted with so many
problems.A problem means an obstruction or difficulty that
one faces while proceeding in a desired direction.He has to
remove the obstruction or difficulty that one faces while
proceeding in a desired direction.He has to remove the
obstruction to reach the goal.Inorder to solve the problem
he has to make use of his power for thinking and
reasoning.As such ,problem solving ability depends upon
the development of thinking and reasoning
