Features of play activity of modern preschoolers - Children's play as a phenomenon

Children's play as a phenomenon

Game is one of the phenomena that accompanies a person throughout his life. As a multidimensional and complex phenomenon, play has always attracted the attention of researchers and remains an important topic to this day.

In the middle of the last century, the famous cultural historian J. Huizinga conducted a semantic analysis of the word “game” and showed that it does not have the same meaning in different languages ​​and different cultures, but is associated with an intuitive awareness in a particular culture of the meaning and place of play in people’s lives . Such an analysis allows us to assess the complexity, ambiguity and diversity of the phenomenon being studied.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the psychological community was faced with the practical task of determining which types of children's activities can be called play and which cannot. This task is urgent because the Convention on the Rights of the Child enshrines in article 31 the child's right to play. But what is a game? In order to protect and support a child's right to play, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of what it is. Therefore, psychologists are faced with the task of finding (creating) a tool for describing and interpreting the game.

Analyzing the phenomenon of the game, modern science relies on historically established game-theoretic approaches of earlier eras, each of which is formed by its own ideas about the nature of the game. The works of M. Born, N. Vorobyov, G. Zhuravlev and others are devoted to the analysis of the game.

In this work, we relied on two theories that made the greatest contribution to the scientific understanding and interpretation of the game phenomenon - L.S. Vygotsky and D.B. Elkonin, as well as the theory of A.N. Leontyev.

L.S. Vygotsky speaks most extensively on the topic of play in his lectures. “In play, the child discovers: every thing has its own meaning, every word has its own meaning, which can replace the thing.” L.S. Vygotsky said that play arises not from a thing, but from a thought. The main criterion of the game is the presence of an imaginary situation. Vygotsky argued that the main feature of gaming activity is the player’s ability to occupy two positions at the same time. For L.S. For Vygotsky, play refers primarily to the sphere of consciousness, to the sphere of constructing meanings and contexts of meaning.

In Soviet and then in Russian psychology, the view of D.B. dominated. Elkonin for the game. The theory of children's play he developed became fundamental and formed the basis of many studies. In collaboration with the “Kharkov group” (A.N. Leontyev, L.I. Bozhovich, P.Ya. Galperin, A.V. Zaporozhets, etc.), he presented the results of his research. The main problem is understanding the nature of the game. From his point of view, a child can do in a game what he cannot do in reality.

The main questions that interested D.B. Elkonin: a critical analysis of existing theories of play, the historical origin and understanding of play as a leading type of activity and the disclosure of its social content, the problem of symbolism and the relationship of object, word and action in the game. The research was carried out in a team, with constant contact with A. Leontyev, P. Galperin, A. Zaporozhets.

In the scientific literature devoted to the upbringing and development of a preschool child, role-playing play is considered as a leading activity. A.N. Leontyev shows that it is in the process of this activity that the child develops new relationships with the social environment, a new type of knowledge and ways of obtaining it, which changes the cognitive sphere and psychological culture of the individual, i.e. promotes the development of neoplasms characteristic of a given age.

The works of D. Elkonin and A. Leontiev provide a detailed analysis of the genesis of role-playing play, its structure, highlight the main patterns of development of play in the preschool period, and show the importance of play for the formation of basic mental transformations of preschool age.

MAGAZINE Preschooler.RF

According to the theoretical positions of domestic developmental psychology, the leading activity of a preschooler is role-playing play. It is in this activity that the main new formations of this age take shape and develop most effectively: creative imagination, imaginative thinking, self-awareness, etc. Play is of particular importance for the development of a variety of forms of voluntary behavior in children - from elementary to the most complex. Thus, in the game, voluntary attention and memory, subordination of motives and purposefulness of actions begin to develop. The conscious goal - to concentrate, remember something, restrain impulsive movement - is highlighted earlier and easier by the child in the game.

One of the main provisions of the concept of play by the outstanding theorist and researcher of children’s play activity D.B. Elkonin is a statement about its social nature. He repeatedly and convincingly emphasized the special sensitivity of the game to the sphere of human relations. Play arises from the conditions of a child’s life in society and reflects these conditions. These provisions have become classic for Russian psychology and are the traditional basis for understanding the nature of the play activity of a preschooler [15].

However, studies of the game by D.B. Elkonin were carried out in the 60-70s, when public relations and society as a whole were different in many ways. Since then, significant changes have occurred in our society, in relationships between people and in the living conditions of children. These changes could not but affect the children's play. The nature of these changes is extremely important to understand, at least for the following reasons.

Firstly, the features of the play of modern preschoolers reflect the uniqueness of their mental development, their interests, values, ideas, etc.

Secondly, the game, due to its special sensitivity to the sphere of human relations, reflects the child’s position in society and the specifics of this society itself.

Thirdly, analysis of the current state of a child’s play activity is extremely important for preschool education, for the construction of new methods of play pedagogy [13, p. 43].

However, despite the importance of this task, there are currently no serious psychological studies devoted to the specifics of modern children’s play. At the same time, parents and kindergarten teachers note that over the past 5-6 years there have been certain changes in the games of preschoolers.

The most obvious change, which is recorded by the majority of experienced preschool teachers, is that children in kindergartens began to play less, especially role-playing games decreased (both in number and duration). Lack of time to play is usually cited as the main reason. In most kindergartens, the daily routine is overloaded with various activities and there is at least an hour left for free play. However, even during this hour, according to the observations of teachers, children cannot play meaningfully and calmly - they fidget, fight, push - therefore, educators try to fill the children’s free time with calm board games and offer them various mosaics, construction sets, etc.

At the same time, it is necessary to emphasize the variability of the game and its dependence on the specific conditions of education. There are separate kindergartens where much attention is paid to children’s play activities, and role-playing play takes extensive forms. Children living in normal family conditions also, as a rule, love and know how to play role-playing games. However, such gardens and such conditions are currently the exception rather than the rule. We are interested in a broader and more general picture of what and how modern preschoolers play.

The reasons for the disappearance of play from preschool childhood are quite obvious. First of all, there is a lack of understanding of the developmental significance of this children's activity. Play is increasingly viewed by adults as entertainment, as useless leisure, which is opposed to targeted learning and mastery of useful skills. This is largely facilitated by the orientation of adults (parents, teachers, specialists) towards teaching preschoolers. The pressure of educational achievements and the priority of learning activities are crowding out play. For most parents, early learning seems to be a more important and useful childhood activity than playing. At the same time, education is understood primarily as the acquisition of knowledge and the acquisition of educational skills (mainly reading, counting, writing). The priority of knowledge and educational activities displaces play from the life and educational process of preschool children [12, p. thirty].

Another reason for the decline in the share of play is the lack of children's communities of different ages. Previously, the game arose spontaneously, regardless of any pedagogical influences from adults, since it was passed on from the older generation of children to the younger ones (in courtyards, in large families and other groups of different ages). At present, when one-child families predominate and contacts between younger children and older children are practically absent, the natural mechanisms of broadcasting the game are disrupted, and adults cannot take on the function of introducing the game.

The marketization of childhood has become a characteristic phenomenon of our time. The abundance of goods and entertainment for children creates a consumption mindset. Thus, toys are increasingly ceasing to be a means of play and turning into goods that adults buy for children. Toys become simply the child’s property, objects of possession that fill physical space, and not incentives for children’s external and internal activity.

The consumption mindset is actively shaped and strengthened by the expansion of modern media and video products for children. The dominant activity of preschoolers has become watching cartoons, the artistic merits and developmental potential of which are, for the most part, very doubtful. This activity is intensively replacing play as a more active and creative form of activity [13, p. 44].

However, one of the main reasons for the “departure of play” from preschool education is the replacement of play with game forms of learning. The game does not seem to disappear, but becomes a means of learning, that is, more “useful” and aimed at learning new things. Indeed, in modern preschool pedagogy the importance of play is not denied, but, on the contrary, is constantly emphasized. However, the meaning of the game is predominantly considered as purely didactic. The game is used to acquire new skills, ideas, to develop useful skills, etc. This, in particular, is evidenced by numerous methods of pedagogical work, in which, one way or another, the terms “ game form” , “game means” , “game technologies " , "game activities", etc. Game is being replaced by game techniques and teaching methods, game technologies and is increasingly becoming not an independent activity (and the leading one), but a means of learning.

In games, children develop attention, activate memory, develop thinking, accumulate experience, improve movements, and create interpersonal interaction. In the game, for the first time, the need for self-esteem arises, which is an assessment of one’s abilities in comparison with the abilities of other participants.

Role-playing games introduce you to the world of adults, clarify knowledge about everyday activities, and allow you to quickly and deeply assimilate social experience. The value of the game is so great that it can only be compared with learning.

Playing is for a child what planning an activity is for an adult. Before any significant event in life, we need to prepare, calculate in our minds, rehearse what we will say and do. If we don’t prepare for important things, we can end up in an unpleasant situation. Here is a child, when in a role-playing game he repeats the actions of adults (heals, teaches, educates, fights, builds), rehearses, prepares for an important event for himself - adulthood. If he did not have time to practice on toys as a child, then in adulthood he feels insecure and may not be up to par. Maybe that’s why adults who lost their childhood early play out the game, make up for lost time at 30 and 40 years old, and until they train, they don’t feel truly mature.

Children's role-playing games (doctor, school, daughters-mothers, war games and other story games) can do what the most professional teacher cannot do. With its help, the child learns with ease and joy, develops all mental processes (memory, attention, speech, thinking, imagination) quietly and effectively. This is the only way for preschoolers to learn; they are not yet able to sit down at their desks and concentrate by force of will. In one game you have to sit like a mouse and not move so as not to be detected. This is how volitional concentration develops. In another game you have to remember magic words to find the treasure. This is how memory develops. In the third game, you need to be on your guard and not miss your lotto card, because the one who closes his big card first will win. This is how attention develops. And so on.

Further development of the theory of children's play could be productive in the following directions:

1. studying the characteristics of the play of both one child in his individual play and in collective play with other children and discussing the dependence (or independence) of the level of development of the child’s play on his inclusion in the game with other children;
2. studying the characteristics of children’s play in multi-age and integration (where there are simultaneously children with normative and deviant development) groups, when play partners have differences associated with intellectual development, behavioral characteristics, physical limitations, etc.;
3. studying the dynamics of individual and group play of children of different psychological ages (including the question of why a play situation arises at a certain moment between certain children and why, due to what external or internal events it ends);
4. studying the characteristics of the play of a child or a group of children depending on the playing material used in the game (playing material in this context is understood extremely broadly);
5. studying the characteristics of the play of a child or group of children indoors and outdoors (outdoors).

List of used literature

1. What do our children play? Games and toys in the mirror of psychology / E. Smirnova and others. – M.: Lomonosov, 2012. – 224 p.
2. Pavlova, L.N. Early childhood: development of speech and thinking / L.N. Pavlova. – M.: Mosaic – Synthesis, 2013. – 236 p.
3. Rutman, E.M. Study of the development of attention in ontogenesis / E.M. Rutman // Questions of psychology. - 2011. - No. 4. — P. 161-167.
4. Smirnova, E.O. Approaches to understanding the game in modern Western psychology / E.O. Smirnova, M.V. Sokolova, E.G. Sheina [Electronic resource] // Modern foreign psychology. – 2012 – No. 1 – URL: http//psyjournals. ru/jmfp (accessed November 24, 2017).
5. Smirnova E.O. Structure and options for a preschooler’s plot game / E.O. Smirnova, I.A. Ryabkova // Psychological science and education. – 2010 – No. 3. – pp. 29-32.
6. Smirnova E.O. Play and arbitrariness in modern preschoolers / E.O. Smirnova, O.V. Gudareva // Questions of psychology. — 2014 — No. 1. – pp. 41-46.
7. Teplitskaya, I.B. Game and relationships among young children / I.B. Teplitskaya // Game and its role in the development of a preschool child. - 2011. - pp. 111-116.

Role-playing in the mental development of preschool children

Preschool age is a special period of child development. At this age, the inner life of the soul and internal regulation of behavior develop. This inner life is manifested in the ability to act within the framework of general ideas, in the child’s imagination, in volitional behavior, in meaningful communication with adults and peers.

All these necessary qualities and skills are formed and developed not in conversations with adults or in classes with specialists, but in role-playing games. This is a game in which children take on the roles of adults and, in imaginary conditions specially created by them, reproduce (model) the activities of adults and the relationships between them.

Preschool age is considered the classic age of play. During this period, the most developed form of a special type of children's play arises and develops, which in psychology and pedagogy is called role-playing play. In such a game, all the mental qualities and personality traits of the child are most intensively formed.

Play is the main activity of a preschool child. As the child develops, the nature of the game changes and it also goes through phases. And from the age of three to seven years, children's games go through a fairly significant development path: games with objects, individual object games of a constructive type, collective role-playing games, individual and group creativity, competitive games, communication games. In pedagogy and psychology, the problem of the influence of play activities on the development of children was studied by D.B. Elkonin, D.V. Mendzheritskaya, R.I. Zhukovskaya, S.L. Rubinstein, L.S. Vygotsky, A.P. Usova, as well as modern authors - N.Ya. Galperin, V.V. Mikhailenko, N.A. Korotkova, V.A. Nedospasova, S.A. Kozlova and others.

In older preschool age, you can find almost all types of games that children have before entering school.

The gaming arsenal of a preschooler includes various types of games, both creative ones, where the child himself chooses the theme of the game, its means and content, and games with rules that have a certain structure and are subject to rules, writes Ugaste. Of course, children love to play all these games. However, role-playing game is the most interesting type of children's game. It relies on a child's idea of ​​adulthood, which develops with age.

A game is a form of activity in conditional situations, aimed at relaxation and assimilation of social experience, in socially conditioned ways of carrying out objective actions, in objects of science and culture, emphasizes B.S. Volkov.

Uruntaeva G. A. notes that play is the most free activity of a preschool child. The random nature of the game is expressed not only in the fact that the child freely chooses the action of the game, but also in the fact that he acts with objects in the game. They differ from the usual use of objects in that they are essentially independent of the specific meaning of these objects and are determined by the meanings that the child himself associates with them in the game.

The essence of play as a leading activity is that in play children comprehend various aspects of life, features of the activities and relationships of adults, acquire and clarify their knowledge about the surrounding reality. Role play acts as an activity in which the child is oriented in the most general, in the most basic meanings of human activity. On this basis, the child’s desire for socially significant and socially valued activities is formed, which is the main indicator of school maturity. This is his guiding function, notes Elkonin. In play, a child acquires new knowledge and skills, reflects feelings and desires, learns to communicate, masters experience and rules of behavior.

Features of play activities of preschool children

When accepting children into a group, you must immediately think about the organization of the subject-development environment so that the period of adaptation to kindergarten passes as painlessly as possible. After all, newly admitted children do not yet have experience communicating with their peers, do not know how to play “together” or share toys.

Children need to be taught to play. And, as you know, the game

- this is a specific, objectively developing abilities, activity that is used by adults to educate preschoolers, teach them various actions, methods and means of communication.

Problems will inevitably arise during the work process:

- children play on their own;

- do not want and do not know how to share toys;

- they don’t know how to play with the toy they like;

— children do not have mutual understanding with each other in the game.

The reason for this is that in the home environment the child is isolated from his peers. He is used to the fact that all the toys belong to him alone, he is allowed everything, no one at home takes anything away from him. And, having come to kindergarten, where there are many children who also want to play with the same toy as his, conflicts with peers begin, whims, and reluctance to go to kindergarten.

For a painless transition from home to kindergarten, to organize a calm, friendly atmosphere in a children's group, it is necessary to help children unite, using play as a form of organizing children's life, and also to develop children's independence in choosing a game and in implementing their plans.

Much has been said and written about the fact that play is necessary for the full development of a child. Children must play. The game captivates children, makes their life more diverse and richer.

All aspects of a child’s personality are formed in the game. Especially in those games that are created by the children themselves - creative or role-playing. Children reproduce in roles everything that they see around them in the lives and activities of adults.

Participation in games makes it easier for children to bond with each other, helps them find a common language, facilitates learning in kindergarten classes, and prepares them for the mental work required for school.

It has long been known that in preschool age, the acquisition of new knowledge in games is much more successful than in classrooms. A child, attracted by the game plan, does not seem to notice that he is learning.

We must remember that the game always has two aspects - educational and cognitive. In both cases, the goal of the game is formed not as the transfer of specific knowledge, skills and abilities, but as the development of certain mental processes or abilities of the child.

In order for the game to really captivate the children and personally touch each of them, the teacher must become a direct participant in it. Through his actions and emotional communication with children, the teacher involves the children in joint activities, makes it important and meaningful for them, and becomes the center of attraction in the game, which is especially important in the first stages of getting to know a new game.

All games are designed to help children:

- they bring joy from communication;

- they teach to express their attitude towards toys and people with gestures and words;

- encourage you to act independently;

- notice and support the proactive actions of other children.

In play, a child’s psyche is formed, on which it depends how much he will subsequently succeed in school, work, and how his relationships with other people will develop.

The game is a fairly effective means of developing such qualities as organization, self-control, and attention. Its rules, mandatory for everyone, regulate the behavior of children and limit their impulsiveness.

The role of play, unfortunately, is underestimated by some parents. They think that playing games takes a lot of time. It is better to let the child sit in front of the TV or computer screen, listening to recorded fairy tales. Moreover, in the game he can break something, tear it, get it dirty, then clean up after him. Playing is a waste of time.

And for a child, play is a way of self-realization. In the game he can become what he dreams of being in real life: a doctor, driver, pilot, etc. In the game, he acquires new knowledge and refines his existing knowledge, activates his vocabulary, develops curiosity, inquisitiveness, as well as moral qualities: will, courage, endurance, and the ability to yield. The game develops an attitude towards people and life. The positive attitude of games helps to maintain a cheerful mood.

A child’s play usually arises on the basis and under the influence of received impressions. Games do not always have positive content; children often reflect negative ideas about life in the game. This is a plot-based game where the child reflects familiar plots and conveys semantic connections between objects. At such moments, the teacher needs to intervene in the game unobtrusively, encourage him to act according to a certain plot, play with the child with his toy, reproducing a series of actions.

The game gives the child a lot of positive emotions; he loves it when adults play with him.

Didactic game as a means of teaching preschool children

A large place in working with preschool children is given to didactic games

. They are used in classes and in children’s independent activities. A didactic game can serve as an integral part of the lesson. It helps to assimilate, consolidate knowledge, and master the methods of cognitive activity.

The use of didactic games increases children's interest in classes, develops concentration, and ensures better assimilation of program material. Here, cognitive tasks are related to gaming ones, which means this type of activity can be called a game-activity

.

In game-activities, the teacher thinks through the content of the game, methodological techniques for carrying it out, imparts knowledge accessible to children’s age, and develops the necessary skills. Assimilation of the material occurs unnoticed by children, without requiring much effort.

The educational effect of the game lies within itself. There is no need for special training in the game. The methods of play activity are conventional and symbolic, its result is imaginary and does not need to be evaluated.

Didactic materials can be divided into two groups. The first includes materials that provide children with opportunities to demonstrate independence when using them. These are a variety of construction sets and construction materials; plot-shaped and plot-didactic toys; natural material; semi-finished products (scraps of fabric, leather, fur, plastic). These materials allow children to experiment freely and use them extensively in games. At the same time, the child is free to choose methods of transformation and receives satisfaction from any result.

The second group included didactic materials specially created for the development of certain abilities and skills. They contain in advance the result that the child should receive when mastering a certain method of action. These are multi-colored rings of different sizes, insert toys, cubes, mosaics. Freedom of activity with these didactic materials is limited by the specific methods of action inherent in them, which the child must master with the help of an adult.

In the process of playing with didactic material, the tasks of familiarizing children with shape, color, and size are solved. The intellectual development of children is carried out - the ability to find common and different things in a subject, group and systematize them according to selected properties. Children learn to reconstruct the whole based on its part, as well as the missing part, disturbed order, etc.

The general principle of activity inherent in didactic games opens up wide opportunities for solving didactic problems of different levels of complexity: from the simplest (assemble a pyramid with three single-color rings, put together a picture of two parts) to the most complex (assemble a Kremlin tower, a flowering tree from mosaic elements ).

In an educational game, the child acts in a certain way; there is always an element of hidden coercion. Therefore, it is important that the conditions created for play provide the child with the opportunity to choose. Then didactic games will contribute to the cognitive development of each child.

Games-activities with didactic material are conducted with children individually or in subgroups. Training is based on dialogue: “What color is the ball? What kind of ball is this? Blue, right? It is advisable to attract the attention of children by introducing some new interesting toy into the group. Children will immediately gather around the teacher, asking questions: “What is this? What for? What are we going to do?” They will ask you to show them how to play with this toy, and they will want to figure it out on their own.

The role of the teacher in organizing role-playing games for preschool children.

The teacher’s skill is most clearly demonstrated in organizing children’s independent activities. How to direct each child to useful and interesting play without suppressing his activity and initiative? How to alternate games and distribute children in a group room or area so that they can play comfortably without disturbing each other? How to eliminate misunderstandings and conflicts that arise between them? The comprehensive upbringing of children and the creative development of each child depend on the ability to quickly resolve these issues.

The main activity of preschool children is role-playing game, which has an extensive character, where several tasks are connected with a single meaning. In role-playing games, the teacher, in joint activities with the children, teaches children play actions: how to feed a doll or a bear, rock them, put them to bed, etc. If a child finds it difficult to reproduce a play action, the teacher uses the technique of playing together.

For games, simple plots with 1-2 characters and basic actions are selected: the driver loads the car with cubes and drives it; Mom rolls her daughter in a stroller, feeds her, puts her to bed. Gradually, the first game plans appear: “Let’s go to the store, buy something tasty, and then there will be a holiday.” The teacher solves game problems together with all participants in the game (building a house, playing family).

Through play, children’s interest in various professions is consolidated and deepened, and respect for work is fostered.

Young children begin to play without thinking about the purpose of the game and its content. Drama games are very helpful here.

. They help expand children's ideas and enrich the content of the child's independent play.

Children willingly accept substitute objects for play. Game items imitate real ones. This helps to understand the meaning of the game situation and inclusion in it.

The teacher emphasizes the imaginary nature of the game situation by introducing imaginary elements into the game in his speech: feeding him porridge that does not exist; washes with water that does not flow from the toy faucet; attributes emotional states to the doll (wants to eat, laughs, cries, etc.). When introducing substitute objects into the game, the teacher not only carries out game actions, but also verbally comments on the conditional object (“This is soap” - a cube; “It’s like a spoon” - a stick, etc.).

In further joint games with children, the teacher expands the range of actions with substitute objects. For example, in one game situation the stick is a spoon, in another the same stick is a thermometer, in a third it is a comb, etc.

The substitute item is always combined with a plot toy (if the bread is a brick, then the plate on which it lies is “like a real one”; if the soap is a cube, then a toy basin is always present, etc.).

Gradually, children begin to take on a play role and designate it for a partner, they begin to develop role interaction - role dialogue (doctor - patient, driver - passenger, seller - buyer, etc.).

In the group, it is necessary to preserve the object-play environment, specially organize it, and select the same toys that were used in joint play. If you played “bathing a doll,” then you need to put 1-2 basins in the play corner; if you “fed the doll,” then we put the dishes so that the children can see them and can use them in the game themselves.

Gradually, along with substitute objects, imaginary objects are also introduced into the game (comb your hair with a comb that is not there; treat you to candy that is not there; cut a watermelon that is not there, etc.).

If the child introduces all this into a game situation on his own, then he has already mastered the basic game skills of a story game.

Playing with dolls is the main game of a preschool child. The doll acts as a substitute for an ideal friend who understands everything and remembers no evil. A doll is both an object for communication and a play partner. She doesn't get offended and doesn't stop playing.

Games with dolls allow children to understand the rules of behavior, develop speech, thinking, imagination, and creativity. In these games, children show independence, initiative and creativity. While playing with a doll, a child develops, learns to get along with other people, and live in a group.

Playing with dolls as daughters and mothers has existed at all times. This is natural: the family gives the child his first impressions of the life around him. Parents are the closest, beloved people whom, first of all, you want to imitate. Dolls attract mainly girls, because mothers and grandmothers take more care of children. These games help instill in children respect for parents, elders, and a desire to take care of children.

Play, the most important type of children’s activity, plays a huge role in the development and upbringing of a child. It is an effective means of shaping the personality of a preschooler, his moral and volitional qualities; the game realizes the need to influence the world. Soviet teacher V.A. Sukhomlinsky emphasized that “game is a huge bright window through which a life-giving stream of ideas and concepts about the world around us flows into the child’s spiritual world. Play is the spark that ignites the flame of inquisitiveness and curiosity.”

Literature:

1. Raising children through play: A manual for child educators. garden / Comp. A.K. Bondarenko, A.I. Matusik. – 2nd ed., revised. and additional – M.: Education, 1983.

2. Together with the family: a guide to interaction between preschools. education institutions and parents / T.N. Doronova, G.V. Glushkova, T.I. Grizik and others - 2nd ed. – M.: Education, 2006.

3. “Preschool education.” – 2005

4. “Preschool education.” – 2009

5. L.N.Galiguzova, T.N.Doronova, L.G.Golubeva, T.I.Grizik and others - M.: Education, 2007.

6. L.S. Vygotsky Game and its role in the psychological development of a child // Questions of psychology: - 1966. - No. 6

7. O.A. Stepanova Development of a child’s play activity: Review of preschool education programs. – M.: TC Sfera, 2009.

8. Growing by playing: avg. and Art. doshk. age: A manual for educators and parents / V.A. Nekrasova. – 3rd ed. – M.: Education, 2004.

Trends in the development of play activities of preschoolers in the modern world

Today, the requirements for a child in society have changed, there is a tendency to increase his independence and at the same time to recognize the special rights of the child, says Friedman. In addition, under the influence of rapidly developing life, significant changes have occurred in relationships between people and in the living conditions of children, which could not but affect the play of preschoolers.

Unfortunately, in our time, role-playing games are becoming more and more monotonous and are reduced mainly to family issues. If children's play does not reach the required level, it gradually disappears from their lives, according to N. Mikhailenko and N. Korotkov. In addition, playing games on topics related to the work activities of adults is significantly reduced in six-year-old children.

Recently, teachers and psychologists have noticed a decrease in role-playing games among preschool children. Children play less than 20-30 years ago, and their role-playing games are more primitive and monotonous. This is apparently due to the fact that children are increasingly moving away from adults, do not see or understand the activities of adults, and are poorly acquainted with their work and personal relationships. As a result, despite the abundance of toys, they have nothing to play with. At the same time, it is noted that modern preschoolers prefer to reproduce in their games actions borrowed from television series and take on the roles of television characters. This suggests that our preschoolers, who spend too much time in front of television, are more familiar with the lives and behavior of strange movie characters than with the real adults who surround them. But this does not change the essence of the game: with all the variety of plots, they hide basically the same content - the activities of people, their actions and relationships.

In recent decades, the sociocultural conditions of a child’s life have changed significantly. Recently, there has been a gap between the generations of children and parents (A.L. Venger, V.I. Slobodchikov, B.D. Elkonin). Increased employment of parents reduces their participation in raising children, which leads to alienation of children and adults. There is a clear deficit of emotionally significant relationships with parents and positive contacts with peers (G.G. Kravtsov, E.E. Kravtsova).

On the other hand, new professions are appearing, the essence of which is closed to the child (programmer, manager, designer, stylist, etc.). The nature of adult behavior in such cases cannot be modeled in a game. The world of adults has become even more closed to the understanding of children, and the scope of possible participation of children in the work of adults has narrowed even further. (G.G. and E.E. Kravtsov). In this context, the idea of ​​an ideal image of adulthood is lost; living together with an adult does not provide content for the child’s play activities (B.D. Elkonin).

In modern conditions, the real possibility of including a preschooler in joint activities and communication with older children is also decreasing. Children of different ages are separated, courtyard and neighborly communication becomes rare (N.Ya. Mikhailenko, N.A. Korotkova). All this complicates the natural transfer of play activity from one generation of children to another. On the other hand, new information technologies are being actively introduced into modern childhood. According to UNESCO, 93% of children spend more than three hours a day watching television. A modern child aged 3 to 5 watches TV on average 28 hours a week. Television, videos and computer games have become a common form of leisure and the main source of impressions for children.

What can serve as a source of content for a preschooler’s role-playing game? There are different points of view on this issue.

Comparison of traditional and modern games for preschool children

Recently, the repertoire of games for preschool children has undergone significant changes. Traditional games have practically disappeared from everyday life, and children’s attitude towards toys has also changed. The changes affected the play set of a modern preschooler and the general principles of organizing the play environment around him.

Finished works on a similar topic

Course work Features of the play activities of modern preschoolers 440 ₽ Abstract Features of the play activities of modern preschoolers 260 ₽ Examination Features of the play activities of modern preschoolers 200 ₽

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The changes are due to the fact that the physical space for organizing games in the city, and sometimes in rural areas, has been significantly reduced. This leads not only to territorial separation of children, but also to a gap between generations.

The children's subculture is also subject to deformation, which is marked by an impoverishment of the repertoire of children's folklore, the loss of oral texts and a significant change in the play repertoire.

Traditional games are aimed at uniting the children’s team; they provide for variability in the child’s behavior “from individual to collective.” This allows children to learn the rules of behavior in society. In addition, in traditional games, children initially choose a leader (leader), that is, they learn status behavior. This combination of simultaneous equality (team) and subordination (leader) develops in children a sense of respect for other people’s opinions, freedom, responsibility, independence and understanding of their own actions.

However, it should be noted that traditional games are being replaced by modern games, often these are a variety of computer games. Unlike traditional ones, they carry a significant load on the child’s eyes, his musculoskeletal system (prolonged immobile posture), emotional overload, lack of fresh air and “live” communication.

Note 2

Thus, adults’ lack of understanding of the significance of the pedagogical influence of traditional games on a child’s development and their neglect leads to the fact that children are more and more immersed in the world of modern computer games. The result of their impact does not guarantee the desired positive educational result.