Do Children Need Adult Support During Sociodramatic Play to Develop Executive Functions? Experimental Evidence

Veresov, Nikolai; Veraksa, Аleksander; Gavrilova, Margarita; Sukhikh, Vera

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.779023

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 68 publications

(102 reference statements)

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“…The idea of this type of natural (without adults) play as the foundation for children's wellbeing is prevailing among play researchers (see, for example, Smirnova, 2014;Burghardt, 2010). However, the results of this study and previous research (Veraksa, 2022;Veresov et al, 2021) provide the grounds for THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN'S PLAY the conclusion about an empirical confirmation of L.S. Vygotsky's approach.…”

Section: Theoretical and Empirical Studies Of Preschool Children's Playmentioning

confidence: 53%

Playing with a Doll Family: Key Characteristics of Junior Preschoolers’ Play Behaviour

Sukhikh,

Veresov,

Gavrilova

2023

RUDN J. Psychol. Pedagog.

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The age of 3-4 years is the initial stage in the development of pretend play, or play involving an imaginary situation. In this process, the leading role belongs to dramatic play with toys, the importance of which for children’s development cannot be underestimated. The qualitative analysis of children’s play presented in this research forms part of a large study aimed at identifying the features of children’s play and the toy preferences throughout the entire preschool age. Ten 3-4-year-old children during five play sessions were asked to play a story with a doll family. Before and after the play sessions, all children were tested to assess the level of development of executive functions, imagination, and the type of attachment was determined for each child using a survey of teachers and mothers. The video recordings of the play sessions were then analyzed. The purpose of the analysis was to identify the characteristics of 3-4-year-old children’s play behavior and to explore the relationship of the play features with the indicators of individual development. The experimental setting with a series of play sessions also made it possible to assess the dynamics in play development for each child. To evaluate the play, the following indicators were used: the theme and content of play, spatial substitution, the extent of elaborateness and stability of the play idea, the level of play actions with a toy, and the elaborateness of role-play interactions. The results showed that the level of development of free play involving an imaginary situation for 3-4-year-old children could be defined as generally low, regardless of the level of individual development indicators. A comparison of the first and the fifth play sessions did not reveal any positive dynamics in the level of play development. These results indicate the important role of adult participation in the support and development of children’s play. They can form the basis for the practical recommendations for teachers and parents how to scaffold the playing process of 3-4 years old children.

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Section: Theoretical and Empirical Studies Of Preschool Children's Playmentioning

confidence: 53%

Playing with a Doll Family: Key Characteristics of Junior Preschoolers’ Play Behaviour

Sukhikh,

Veresov,

Gavrilova

2023

RUDN J. Psychol. Pedagog.

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“…A significant number of studies investigates 10. 3389/fpsyg.2022.1057209 Frontiers in Psychology 02 frontiersin.org how adults and child-adult interactions in play settings might influence the development of executive functions and support the idea that the self-regulation in early development is deeply embedded in the child's relations with others (Hakkarainen et al, 2013;Fleer et al, 2020;Van Oers and Pompert, 2021;Veresov et al, 2021). At the same time, interesting new play-focused curricula emerged, for example, the Tools of the Mind Leong, 2001, 2017) and playworlds (Lindqvist, 1996), both originated in Vygotsky's theory of development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…Detailed results of statistical analysis are presented by Veraksa et al (2022a , b) , Veresov et al (2021) . T -test was applied for the comparison of the pre- and post-test results for each executive functions’ measure.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The influence of play on the development of the executive functions (EFs) in preschool children has been widely studied ( Blair and Diamond, 2008 ; McClelland et al, 2010 ; Diamond and Lee, 2011 ; Lillard et al, 2013 ; Goldstein and Lerner, 2018 ; Bukhalenkova et al, 2020 ; Thibodeau-Nielsen et al, 2020 ). A significant number of studies investigates how adults and child-adult interactions in play settings might influence the development of executive functions and support the idea that the self-regulation in early development is deeply embedded in the child’s relations with others ( Hakkarainen et al, 2013 ; Fleer et al, 2020 ; Van Oers and Pompert, 2021 ; Veraksa and Veraksa, 2021 ; Veresov et al, 2021 ). At the same time, interesting new play-focused curricula emerged, for example, the Tools of the Mind ( Bodrova and Leong, 2001 , 2017 ) and playworlds ( Lindqvist, 1996 ), both originated in Vygotsky’s theory of development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dramatic Perezhivanie as a driver of executive functions development through role-play in early childhood: Theoretical framework and experimental evidence

Sukhikh

Veresov²,

Veraksa³

2022

Front. Psychol.

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Role-play in early childhood is associated with development of executive functions (EFs), although study results remain inconsistent. Due to the complex nature of the role-play, the underlying mechanisms of these associations are not obvious. In this article, play is viewed in the framework of the cultural-historical approach as a special social situation that can become the social situation of development if it results in dramatic perezhivanie of a child. In this study, we compared the level of EFs and play behavior between two play contexts: play guided by an adult and one with less adult involvement. Play behavior was analyzed based on five behavioral measures suggested to be the markers of dramatic perezhivanie. Measures of EFs were taken before and after the experimental procedure. Results show that dramatic perezhivanie might be considered a driver of EFs development through role-play in early childhood. As well as this, the involvement of an adult into play was associated with different patterns of EFs dynamics before and after the intervention. Future work can investigate if the construct of dramatic perezhivanie, microsocial situation of development, and micro-crisis might explain variability of the study results on the association between the role-play and child development.

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“…The point here is that, if, in teaching children the adults lead them, helping them solve this or that problem, in play activities they are distant from the children. Of course, adults are the bearers of those social relations and cultural patterns that the preschoolers master in the process of pretend play (Veresov et al, 2021). Their role as participants in interaction situations modeled by children in play remains intact.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pretend Play and Project-Based Learning as Factors in the Development of Preschool Children

Veraksa,

Plotnikova

2023

RUDN J. Psychol. Pedagog.

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In psychology, playing is traditionally considered the most developing form of preschool children’s activity. Nowadays, despite the large amount of research demonstrating the significant impact of pretend play on the psychological development of the preschoolers, project-based learning is widespread in kindergartens. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to determine whether it is enough for the successful development of the preschool children to include them in pretend play or whether it is important to use other educational technologies as well. According to the cultural-historical and activity-based approaches in the educational psychology, the key features of play and project-based learning are identified as fundamental for the development of the preschoolers. Based on the identified key features, the authors conduct a comparative analysis of play and project-based learning in order to determine their fundamental differences. The results of the analysis show that these types of activities have their own developmental tools: an imaginary situation (in play) and a space for children’s realization (for project-based activity). It is also demonstrated that inclusion in pretend play involves a process orientation caused by the underdevelopment of the operational sphere in the preschoolers, while project-based learning is result-oriented activity aimed at creating a socially significant product. Finally, an essential point in play and project-based activity is associated with the role of the adult. In play, the child is independent, being the subject of play activity. In project activities, the child is the author of an idea, with the adult being the child’s interpreter. The research shows the fundamental differences between pretend play and project-based activity for the development of the preschoolers, which should be taken into account when working with children of this age.

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Do Children Need Adult Support During Sociodramatic Play to Develop Executive Functions? Experimental Evidence

Cited by 7 publications

References 68 publications

Playing with a Doll Family: Key Characteristics of Junior Preschoolers’ Play Behaviour

Playing with a Doll Family: Key Characteristics of Junior Preschoolers’ Play Behaviour

Dramatic Perezhivanie as a driver of executive functions development through role-play in early childhood: Theoretical framework and experimental evidence

Pretend Play and Project-Based Learning as Factors in the Development of Preschool Children

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