“It would be better to get busy, he’s playing!”: Play in a child’s life

: Reading time:

Today, all parents are concerned about the early development of their child, almost from the cradle they take him to developmental studios, numerous clubs and sections. A child is taught letters as soon as he begins to walk, or even earlier. The desire to raise a child to be a genius leads to the devaluation of a simple game. She seems like a waste of time to parents. Is it really? What are the benefits of games for children? Psychologist Victoria Melikhova tells.

Before the baby can even stand on his feet, his mother takes him to the development studio. Experienced teachers offer a wide variety of classes to develop motor skills, memory, attention, thinking, speech, and emotional intelligence. Methods have been invented to teach letters and numbers to a one-year-old baby! Dancing, sports, swimming pool, gymnastics, speed reading, special kindergartens with a slope, mental arithmetic for preschoolers... And then preparation for school appeared on the horizon.

“I try to give my child everything. It is still small, which means it absorbs like a sponge. I don’t want to miss the moment, because later it will be much more difficult for him to learn and develop than now,” says the mother of a wonderful baby. “Besides, running from circle to circle, I myself feel significant and valuable to him, because I do everything that depends on me.”

We will not talk about the benefits or harms of early development and such upbringing (of course, parents are guided by good goals), but we will draw attention to the fact that in such a “race for development” the child does not have time to just play.

Parents don't understand why children should play

In my practice, I have often encountered the fact that parents often underestimate children's play. I have to explain to parents why children need to play.

“Just leave him unattended, so he will immediately start playing around.”

We begin to figure out what it means to “play around”: taking toys out of the closet, throwing construction sets around, running around the room with a typewriter, scattering beans with a spoon... Wait a minute! It seems that what we are talking about here is that the child is playing. He examines toys and studies surrounding objects. Curiosity is one of the most important qualities for a baby! He is trying to “cook soup”, pretending to be a taxi driver. Only for mom all these actions are united by the word “indulge.” A separate problem is if this happens in public places.

“She is constantly mischievous. Either he will bring stones and place them in the middle of the room, or he will pour sand on the table. As soon as I turn away, something will inevitably be pulled over my head. I just don’t have the strength.”

Yes, often children during games (especially mobile and active ones) can cause some inconvenience, ruin the established order, turn over toys and even stain the carpet. But are these losses comparable to what a child receives during simple games... So why do children need games?

MAGAZINE Preschooler.RF

Shaydullina Lillia Marsovna, teacher of MBDOU "DSOV No. 20" in Usinsk

Play is a child’s genuine social practice, his real life in the company of his peers. Therefore, the problem of using the game for the comprehensive development of the child, the formation of his positive personal qualities and socialization as a member of society is relevant. The game acts as a kind of bridge from the world of children to the world of adults, where everything is intertwined and interconnected: the world of adults influences the world of children and vice versa.

Play is a special activity that flourishes in childhood and accompanies a person throughout life. It is now generally accepted that play is the leading activity of a preschool child, and that by playing, the child masters the ability to enrich and analyze, memorize and recall what is needed at the moment. Through play, children develop imagination and the ability to concentrate. As it may not be surprising at first glance, it is in play that the child is given complete freedom, the baby acquires the ability to restrain immediate desires, control over his actions, and purposeful, voluntary behavior. In a word, all the most important psychological new formations that a child needs throughout his entire future life originate in children’s play. It is no coincidence that educators have long noted that, as a child is in the game, so to a large extent he will be in life. The game promotes the development of creative imagination aimed at a specific goal, to create something new, to achieve a certain result.

Despite the importance of play as a child’s all-round development, play is being replaced by educational activities. Parents devote most of their time to preparing their children for education.

Therefore, the best and proven means of forming a child’s personality of preschool age is the active activity of the child himself. The game has a number of advantages in this regard. It is an important means of control in the lives of children and provides a great opportunity for the manifestation of childish spontaneity, positive feelings and actions. The nature of role-playing and construction games contributes to the development of kind and conscious relationships in children. Mastering various rules helps regulate children's relationships.

A child needs active activities that help improve his vitality, satisfy his interests and social needs. The game is of great educational importance; it is closely connected with learning in the classroom and with observations of everyday life. In creative games, an important and complex process of mastering knowledge takes place, which mobilizes the child’s mental abilities, his imagination, attention, and memory.

The game makes high demands on the child’s speech development: he must explain what and how he would like to play, agree with other children who can play what role, pronounce his text so that others understand it. The game contributes to the development not only of communication with peers, but also of the child’s voluntary behavior. The mechanism for controlling one’s behavior, obedience to the rules, develops precisely in the game, and then manifests itself in other types of activities. Conventionally, games can be divided into two main groups: role-playing games and games with rules.

Role-playing games are games on everyday topics, theatrical games, games - fun, entertainment.

The plot-role-playing game of a child is of a creative nature, where children take on roles and reproduce the activities and relationships of adults. In such games, children are capable of interesting inventions; they themselves add variety to this or that game. Children's initiative has a huge impact on the education of not only one child, but also the entire group.

Games with rules have a different purpose: they provide the opportunity for systematic exercises necessary for the development of thinking, feelings and speech, voluntary attention and memory, and various movements. Each game with rules has a specific didactic task, but ultimately, it is also aimed at solving basic educational problems. Games with rules require generalization of knowledge and independent choice in solving a given problem.

Games with rules also include didactic games. Didactic games are especially interesting for children because of their entertainment and content: guess, find, name. Children achieve results in the game, guided by certain rules. Interest in the quality of the game task is manifested: carefully fold the pattern, correctly, select a picture, and so on.

An interesting game increases the child’s mental activity, and he can solve a more difficult problem than in class.

The game gives good results only in combination with other methods: observations, conversations, reading, etc., because While playing, children learn to apply their knowledge and skills in practice. It is in preschool age that the ability to behave in accordance with the roles assumed arises, which is very important for the further social development of the child.

By playing, children learn to live! Play is serious for the child himself, it is life itself, it is childish spontaneity, naivety, and sometimes amazing seriousness. For a child, play is not always sweet fun; often it is work, overcoming oneself.

Literature:

1. Eremeeva V.D. Boys and girls. Teach in different ways, love in different ways. Neuropedagogy – for teachers, educators, parents, school psychologists. – Samara: Educational literature, 2005. – 160 p.
2. Gubanova N.F. Play activities in kindergarten. For working with children 2 – 7 years old. – M.: Mosaic – Synthesis. 2015. – 128 p.
3. Skorolupova O.A., Loginova L.V. LET'S PLAY?... LET'S PLAY!!! Pedagogical guidance of games for preschool children. – M.: “Publishing house Scriptorium 2003” . 2006. – 111 p.

What children's games teach

It's not just about entertainment. Let us remember that at every age a person has a leading type of activity. This is an activity during which growth, learning, personality formation, and the development of all skills, knowledge and abilities occur. And for a child, such an activity is precisely play.

What does the game give to children of different ages?

The youngest children tend to manipulate objects. They study the material world. They can look at objects, perform incomprehensible actions with them, taste them, smell them. They are interested in how the stone falls, so they will throw it many times and watch it fall. They are fascinated by the process of pouring sand. Grain of sand to grain of sand. He falls, hits the table and bounces again. Well, why not magic!

The most important thing is that all these actions are performed by the child himself. He can influence objects and move them. It is he who creates the sound of falling stones and running water. Oh, how great he feels at this time, how he wants to share his achievements with you! And how many interesting things there are around!

In addition to the physical meaning of throwing objects, which consists in studying its properties, the sound when falling, the ability to influence the environment, there is also a psychological meaning.

Oh, how great he feels at this time, how he wants to share his achievements with you! And how many interesting things there are around!

The child scatters pencils - the mother collects them and returns them. Pencils are coming back. They go away for a while, walk, but then return home. The mother accepts the child and the abandoned pencils and returns them. If something goes away, it will come back. The mother who left the room will return, the baby who went for a walk will return. After departure comes return, there is a cycle. This is how one becomes aware of the basic patterns, what children’s games teach, among other things.

At the level of objective play, the child is still of little interest in peers and communication. All their attention is focused on themselves, surrounding objects, their physical properties and studying their ability to influence these objects.

Gradually, the child begins not only to throw objects and try them out, but also to study their generally accepted properties and pay attention to their functions. You can eat with a spoon, the car rolls, and you can build a tower out of cubes. And finally, around the age of three, plots appear in a child’s games.

The kid comes up with fantastic stories and builds new worlds. He becomes a warrior or a cook, a mother or father, a teacher or a doctor. The child tries out various social roles, tries them on himself, he rehearses for adult life.

You can live thousands of lives in a day, experience a wide variety of images, and experience the most unpredictable situations.

The child tries out various social roles, tries them on himself, he rehearses for adult life.

Games contribute to the development of a child’s imagination, fantasy, and creative potential. The baby learns to experience a variety of feelings. Today he is an angry wolf, and tomorrow he is a cowardly hare or a brave lion. He learns, helps himself to understand what it’s like to be angry, to be afraid, to fight.

In the game, the child learns to communicate, looks for his place in society, in life. It’s like he’s rehearsing life itself! And for this he was given his entire childhood.

The importance of play in the life of preschoolers

Galina Kurlykina

The importance of play in the life of preschoolers

At the moment, pedagogy and psychology set a goal for the preschool education system - to prepare a harmoniously, diversified child for entering school.

The personal qualities of a child are formed in vigorous activity, which is leading at each age stage. In preschool age, such an activity is play. Already at early and senior age levels, it is in play that children have the greatest opportunity to be independent, to realize and deepen their knowledge and skills.

“For children of preschool age, games are of exceptional importance ; play is study for them; play is work for them; play is a serious form of education for them. Play for them is a way of learning about their surroundings. While playing, they study colors, shapes, spatial relationships...” N.K. Krupskaya.

Through play, a child enters the world of adults, masters spiritual values, and assimilates the previous social world.

Preschool childhood is a short but important period of personality development. During these years, the child acquires initial knowledge about the life him, he begins to form a certain attitude towards people, towards work, develops skills and habits of correct behavior, and develops a character.

The main activity of preschool age , as we already know, is play, during which attention, memory, imagination, discipline, dexterity and much more develop.

During play , the child develops as a personality; he develops those aspects of his psyche on which his success in educational and work activities and his relationships with people will subsequently depend.

Role-playing games . In them, children reproduce everything that they see around them in the lives and activities of adults.

The game is a reflection of life . Imitating adults in play is associated with the work of the imagination. The child does not copy reality, he combines different impressions from life with personal experience . Children's creativity is manifested in the concept of the game and in the search for means for its implementation. In the game, children simultaneously act as playwrights, decorators, and actors. However, they do not hatch their idea, do not prepare for a long time to perform the role, like actors; they play for themselves, expressing their dreams and aspirations, thoughts and feelings that currently possess them. Therefore, the game is their improvisation.

Play is one of the most important means of a child’s mental education. The knowledge gained in kindergarten and at home finds practical application and development in the game. Reproducing various life , episodes from fairy tales and stories, the child reflects on what he saw, what was read and told to him, the meaning of many phenomena, their meaning becomes more clear to him.

Play is an activity in which children first interact with peers. They are united by a common goal, joint efforts to achieve it, common interests and experiences. During the game, the child begins to feel like a member of the team, evaluate the actions and actions of his comrades and his own. Creative collective play is a school for preschoolers to perceive life .

Translating life experiences into a game is a complex process. Creative play cannot be subordinated to narrow didactic goals; with its help, the most important educational tasks are solved. Children choose their playing role in accordance with their tools and their dreams about their future profession. They are still childishly naive and change more than once, but it is important that the child dreams of participating in work useful to society. Gradually, through play, the child develops general ideas about the meaning of work and the role of various professions.

In play, children’s mental activity is always associated with imagination: you need to find a role for yourself, imagine how the person you want to imitate acts, what he says. Imagination also manifests itself in the search for means to accomplish what is planned; Before it takes off, it is necessary to build an airplane; You need to select the necessary product for the store, and if it is not enough, create it yourself.

Interesting games create a cheerful , joyful mood, make children's lives complete , and satisfy their need for active activity. Even in good conditions, with adequate nutrition of the child, he will be lethargic and develop poorly if he is involved in an exciting game . In play, all aspects of a child’s personality are formed in unity and interaction.

Organizing a friendly team, instilling comradely feelings and organizational skills in children is possible only if you manage to captivate them with games that reflect the work of adults, their noble deeds, and relationships.

I believe the following rules of the game :

1. Get your child interested in playing, but don’t force him to play, and don’t let the game get to the point of satiety. And also, refrain from making offensive comments: “Oh, you fool!”

,
“How not smart you are!”
etc. Do not offend the child in the game.

2. The game should bring pleasure to both the child and the adult. Every success of the baby is a mutual achievement, both yours and his. Rejoice at him - this inspires the baby, this is the key to his future success.

Observe how happy children are if they manage to make us laugh or make us happy.

3. To get a feel for the relative difficulty of the tasks, be sure to try them yourself before assigning tasks to children.

4. Be sure to start with feasible tasks or with simpler parts of them. Success at the beginning is a must.

5. Educational - creative games . Children must do all tasks independently. Be patient and do not suggest with a word, a gesture, or a look. Give the opportunity to think and do everything yourself and find mistakes. Gradually coping with more and more difficult tasks, the child develops his creative abilities.

6. If a child fails to complete a task, it means you overestimate his level of development. Take a break, and after a few days, start with easier tasks. It’s even better if the child himself begins to choose tasks taking into account his capabilities. Don't rush him.

7. Each child needs a separate set of games .

8. In what order should the games ? The author would start with the game “Fold the Patterns”

,
“Colorful cubes”
or Montessori inserts, here the child needs to distinguish between colors and shapes.
And the general rule is to monitor the child’s development, record his progress and determine when and which of the games to “turn on”
.

9. For the little ones, enliven the game with a fairy tale or story, give them “names”

patterns, modules, drawings, figures. Invent and fantasize until the child begins to be captivated by the very process of overcoming difficulties in solving problems and achieving the desired goal.

10. Take care of games , do not put them in the same place as other toys. After all, the forbidden fruit is sweet, and it is better if the child asks for them or offers to play. Let them stand in a visible, but not very accessible place.

11. Children’s hobbies come in “waves”

, therefore, when a child’s interest in the game cools down, forget about the game for a month or even more, and then
“accidentally”
return to the game, it often happens that it is like meeting an old friend whom you have not seen for a long time.

12. It’s better to use a stopwatch and organize competitions on the speed of solving problems. Rapidly developing children can already defeat adults at the age of 6-7 years. In this case, you need to gather courage and honestly admit your defeat in a chivalrous manner.

13. Create a relaxed atmosphere in the game. Don’t restrain your child’s motor activity so that you can jump with delight, do somersaults on the mat, and fly like on an airplane.

14. When folding patterns or models using ready-made tasks has already been mastered, move on to inventing new ones.

15. The strong want to fight, the fast want to run or play outdoor games , but the weak don’t like this. "Not interested in the game"

a child can for two main reasons. He has poorly developed qualities that are needed in the game, or adults have discouraged him by forcing him to play.

Based on all this, it can be noted that the leading place in the system of preschool education belongs to games.

Play activity is of utmost importance for the comprehensive development of a child’s personality and acts as a connecting link in relation to the cognizable.

The problem of the formation and development of gaming activity is widely reflected in the psychological and pedagogical literature.

Thus, the game, when formed correctly, solves the problems of the mental, physical, moral, and aesthetic development of each child.

The game affects not only the development of the individual as a whole, it also shapes individual cognitive processes, speech and arbitrariness of behavior. Of course, a preschooler develops in different types of activities, but play is of particular importance . It is the leading activity in the preschool period , since no other activity has such a strong influence on the development of the cognitive activity of a preschooler .

Do we know how to play with children?

At the very beginning of my journey as a child psychologist, I often caught myself thinking how difficult it was to just play. Come up with a plot, fantasize... Reduce control a little and give free rein to your emotions. Feel the child, pick up his script and complement it, help unfold his logical chain. Join his activities and add a new element, a new direction. What a huge effort it takes to become a child again!

At the first meetings with parents, I am interested in how and what they play with their child. A few answer that during joint games they assemble construction sets, puzzles, draw, roll cars or participate in role-playing “productions.” Most say that they look at letters and numbers with their child, name animals, ask them to give or bring some kind of toy, show parts of the body - they focus on intellectual games. One words are taught.

When parents find out that they need to play with their child, and specifically in his game, they are very often lost. You can see in their eyes that they simply don’t know how to do this.

Then I try to help: I ​​ask what mom played when she was little. Few people can remember anything more than just dolls and daughters and mothers. The memory of his childhood remains so deeply hidden that questions about the game are puzzling.

How play develops a child

The game, or more precisely, its importance in a child’s life is great. After all, while playing, he develops, grows, acquires the necessary qualities. What do you need to know about the game - subject-based, plot-role-playing, etc., which games are destructive? What to do if a boy plays with dolls?

The importance of play for the full development of a child is difficult to overestimate. In the works of the remarkable psychologist D.B. Elkonin lists numerous functions of the game: the development of imagination and initiative, abstract thinking, memory and attention, emotional development, but the main thing, probably, is that the game is necessary for the development of skills to interact with the world. In a game situation, the structure of the world is always modeled, be it the world of social relations or the world of objects. The child copies the world around him into his play and thus assimilates it.

Object game

How play develops a child At the age of three, a child masters playing with objects. At this time, communication with parents is the main thing in social relationships, interaction with peers is still very limited. Although the child already learns some rules of social life: on playgrounds, in the sandbox and in short-stay groups (or nurseries), he gains experience of integrating into the social structure. The child learns to learn the rules of socially encouraged and rejected behavior (do not take other people’s toys, do not fight, help kids, etc.), and also gets the first experience of playing together, which is often initiated by adults (“let’s make a sand castle together now”).

But what is more important in these first games is the actual interaction with the objective world. In imitation games with objects (toy dishes, doll clothes, cars, weapons, etc.), the child builds and checks connections between objects. At the same time, children imitate the actions of adults that they can observe, and the parent’s task in this case is to demonstrate to the child a wide repertoire of these actions.

Object play allows the child to make the world understandable to himself, and correctly selected toys during this period facilitate this process. At a very early stage, you need to have play objects that are as similar to real ones as possible, so that gradually, with the development of imagination, the child can replace them with something else. For example, at first the girl has a toy cup and plate, she makes tea for her dolls, and at this moment her mother says: “Oh, now I wish I could bake a cake for them, but we don’t have a stove, let’s take this box - it will be a stove, and we will bake a cake in it.” The mother sets an example for the child to deal with such a situation while maintaining connections that exist in the real world (in the real world, the cake is cooked on the stove). As many philosophers and writers have noted, these imaginary objects, woven into the structure of the real world, enable the child to grow up as a human being. Baby monkeys also imitate their parents' actions with objects, but they do not play with a stick, believing that it is a snake. Writer Terry Pratchett wrote in one of his novels that one must believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy “solely as a practice: first, one must learn to believe in little lies” in order to then accept and understand such concepts as pity, justice and everything else. .

Another function of object play is understanding the properties of objects. At the beginning of the century, Maria Montessori developed the theory of a developing space in which educational objects seem to reveal their properties themselves. These items are easy to make at home with your own hands. For example, these can be squares of the same size from different materials, glued in a row on one panel: from the softest (silk) to the roughest (sandpaper). By touching them with his hands, the baby learns to distinguish the tactile properties of materials. The same can be done with colors, shapes, sounds and even smells!

Here I would like to talk about the experience of a home development studio, which I conducted together with other proactive mothers for children under three years old. For this purpose, a developmental space was organized, where mothers sat in different zones, offering children various games and tasks. In one zone, children developed fine motor skills (through finger games, searching for objects in a pot of cereal), in another they sang songs and showed notes on musical instruments, someone showed the properties of pyramids and cubes, someone glued appliques or drew with the children etc.

Children moved freely in this space for two hours, choosing tasks to their liking, while constantly feeling the support of adults if they needed help with something. Thus, they gained experience in choosing their own activity and interacting with other children (for example, two children cannot complete some task at the same time - then you have to wait).

In addition, in the same space there were educational materials made on the basis of the Montessori concept, with which the children interacted completely independently. This form of organization allows for the fullest development of cognitive functions (attention, memory, thinking), creative abilities, and the ability to interact with others.

Role-playing game

After three years, play becomes the leading activity for the child, and at this moment a role-playing game comes into the child’s life, in which the child masters the world of relationships between people.

The world of social interaction in the game is presented in two aspects: on the one hand, it is the social structure and norms of communication, on the other, social roles and relationships. In active “normative” games (tag, hide and seek, kicks, dodgeball), the child learns to play “by the rules”, becomes familiar with social norms and learns the basic social structure. In role-playing games (“mother-daughter”, “doctor-patient”, “war game”, etc.), the child in a playful way encounters common social roles and acts out cultural norms of behavior; it is here that he learns the structure of the world of relationships. For example, if a girl plays a mother, then she should be calm, loving, take care of her children and make decisions. The nature of the role-playing game is also imitative: by depicting some behavior patterns that the child sees in the adult world, the child touches on the relationships that stand behind this behavior.

Games with peers thus carry the function of social adaptation. The child learns to feel and empathize with others, to find and defend his place in the group and to perceive, sometimes intuitively, the rules of behavior in large and small groups.

When raising children, it is very important to understand that the functions of role-playing play with peers are almost impossible to replace at home. When I worked at a school and carried out adaptation of first-graders, I was amazed that children who did not go to kindergarten or any other stable groups (clubs, socialization groups, or just a yard company) could be identified almost immediately. It is difficult for them to adapt to the team; they do not know what role they can play in the class or how to present themselves to their peers. Some functions of social intelligence are simply not developed. If the ability to sense systems of rules can be developed at home through an understandable and developed system of agreements and responsibilities of the child, then role-playing games with parents cannot replace interaction with a group of peers.

If it is difficult for a child

What questions often worry parents regarding children's games and what is important to pay attention to? Very often, parents bring their children to consultation with the words “he doesn’t play with anyone,” “he doesn’t like kindergarten because he always ends up on the outskirts, he has no friends there,” etc. Such a situation can be very traumatic for a child, causing him great suffering, and here he cannot do without the help of his parents.

How can I help here? First of all, the parent should become a psychologist and friend for the child and discuss the situation with him. Which company or group is he not accepted into? How does this happen? It would be great to invite the child to act out some typical scene where he felt rejected by the group, using his toys as actors and asking him to act as a director. In this case, you need to invite him to choose the toy actors himself. This is necessary, firstly, so that the child can see the situation from the outside, and secondly, the very choice of toys for play can show his attitude towards himself and towards the children in the group. After the skit is shown, you need to ask his opinion: why, in his opinion, was his character not taken to play? What could he do to get hired?

Such a conversation will help the child understand what happened and try to correct the situation. For example, if a child is not allowed to play because everyone is playing with expensive toys that he does not have, you can help him by teaching him various games that do not require any special objects (“boxes”, “ring”, etc. ). Searching for such games on the Internet will take very little time, but will allow the child to feel important if he brings a story about a new game to kindergarten every day. However, the situation of a child being rejected by a group of peers may be associated with his own behavior (shyness, aggressiveness, unwillingness to play by the rules, etc.), and here it would be useful to contact a psychologist so that he can give recommendations on how to help change this.

When games are destructive

Another issue of concern to parents is related to destructive or aggressive games, when a child breaks objects in a game or acts out some negative events (playing criminals, death or illness, games related to violence, etc.).

How should we feel about this? In such a situation, it is very important to analyze whether these themes appear only in the play situation or are reflected in the rest of the child's life. The game, among other things, carries the function of an emotional response, experiencing some feelings that the child encountered in real life. If a child has seen a report on TV about murders or violence, or there are conflicts in his family, this is a part of the world that he comes into contact with and which he needs to somehow integrate into his own picture of the world. In a playful form, he can, on the one hand, better understand what happened, on the other hand, experience these emotions, give them some kind of outlet. When the parents quarreled, and the child, coming to the playground, destroyed the sand pyramid, this gave him the opportunity to somehow throw out and experience the negative feelings that he experienced. He needs to somehow survive such parts of life as death or illness, so many children play with illness, dying, funerals - and this is a normal part of development.

It’s another matter if negative or destructive gaming themes extend throughout the child’s life, for example, the aggression he shows concerns not only the game, but also all interaction situations. Such manifestations should be treated very carefully and, ideally, consult a specialist to make sure that this is not a symptom of some kind of neurodevelopmental disorder.

If a boy plays with dolls

In our culture, the separation of female and male social roles remains important, and therefore there are “normative” games for boys and for girls. But what if a boy plays with dolls and a girl plays with cars? Often this question also turns out to be painful for parents.

Here it is necessary to highlight one more function of the game, which not only allows you to get used to adult social roles, but also to some extent forms gender identity. Gender identity is the awareness of oneself as belonging to a particular gender. The biological development of a person in this matter lags slightly behind the social one: puberty occurs only in adolescence, while the feeling of being a girl or a boy is formed much earlier. As with any identity (professional, group, class) at the time of its formation, people are prone to experimentation. Therefore, in games, children often experiment, playing both as a different gender (dressing, choosing toys) and in social roles, which in culture have a strong gender connotation. So, boys begin to play as a kindergarten teacher, and girls as a military general.

If such games are one-time or periodic in nature (for example, associated with a cartoon character that the child really likes), then there is no reason to worry. Gender identity will be formed quite quickly, the boy will recognize himself as a boy and will play boyish roles. But if this does not happen, then it is worth paying attention to possible reasons, for example, the absence of adults in the child’s life who create the image of a woman and a man. Such situations happen if parents raise a child alone and seem to carry both gender roles in one person.

Social or cognitive development?

Finally, I would like to highlight one more point related to the place of play in the life of modern preschoolers. Nowadays, competition between parents, which has always been quite strong, leads to a decrease in the time that the child can devote to playing. Early development is considered both here and in most countries as a necessity, something that a child must receive. Children study foreign languages, go to music, drawing, dancing, and are taught to read and write early. In itself, this process does not carry anything bad, except for two aspects.

The first is due to the fact that play is no longer considered an important part of a child’s life, to which it is necessary to devote special time, buy game items, and generally pay some special attention. After several hours of classes, the child may simply no longer have the strength for full-fledged play, and it is replaced by cartoons, gadgets, or, at best, simple games on the playground.

But social development is in many ways even more important. For any adult, it is obvious that the ability to find one’s place in the world of people and build relationships with them is one of the most important for a happy life, but this skill does not appear on its own, it also needs to be developed! But the concept of social intelligence in our culture is still new, and its assessment, and even more so its development, causes difficulties. Fortunately, for quite some time now, centers for the socialization of children have been operating in Moscow, in which children learn to communicate, interact and coexist in a group according to certain rules. Although, of course, such centers are still less widespread than ordinary early development centers.

Another aspect concerns parents' desire to compare their child's achievements with those of others. The level of social development is difficult to diagnose, unlike cognitive development. All parents want their child to be “the very best,” and the development of cognitive functions is the easiest to track (“a child draws a still life at two years old, reads at three years old, and writes poetry at five years old”). With the advent of the Internet, the problem of an incredibly large number of contacts also appeared. If earlier a mother could compare her baby’s achievements with the achievements of ten to twenty other children, and in some ways her child was definitely “the best,” now the spread has increased hundreds of times. If a mother writes on a forum that her child learned to read at two years old, then a mother will definitely appear whose child can read at one and a half years old. Such a comparison “by indicators” brings a lot of unpleasant sensations to both parents, who feel their incompetence, and children, whom they are trying to “grow” to the required indicators, overwhelming them with new activities and educational toys.

Parents can draw their own conclusions.

Author: Ekaterina Sveshnikova, graduated from the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, psychotherapist (existential analysis), has been conducting psychological consultations for adolescents for eight years

Education and Orthodoxy / Orthodox education

Watching a child play

The most important work of a psychologist consists of carefully observing the child’s play, following the plot, and the main characters of the game. The child cannot yet clearly express his thoughts and feelings. But he can show everything perfectly in the game.

He won’t say that he was scared of the dog, but the image of a large animal with sharp teeth always appears in the game.

The baby, who recently lost his status as the first-born, buries in the sand all the objects that catch his eye. He's trying to fit a big car into a small garage. Careful observation of his actions will show his desire to become small again, when he was the only one, when he was placed in his mother's tummy, where it was warm and calm.

Every action of a child, every toy he takes is equivalent to adult words, thanks to which we can understand what is going on in the soul of a little man.

Now he's big. Returning to the tummy is impossible. But you can play it. And at the same time, experience many feelings: the desire to return to infancy, the pain of the impossibility of realizing this desire, the support of a loved one nearby at this difficult moment for him.

Another child constantly pushes the cars against each other, hits each other with one car, and sprinkles sand on it. After talking with my mother, I find out that there is a boy on the playground who constantly offends this child. However, because the offender is older, the baby cannot give him “change.” But he lives all his feelings in the game.

Experienced, conscious, and manifested feelings in play cease to torment the child, relief sets in - this is also an important task of games, they provide relaxation. Every action of a child, every toy he takes is equivalent to adult words, thanks to which we can understand what is going on in the soul of a little man, what he thinks about, what he dreams about, what worries him.

Report on the topic “Game activity and its importance in preschool age”

Play activity and its importance in preschool age

Preschool childhood is a fairly large period of a child’s life. This is a period of mastering the social space of human relationships not only through communication with close adults, but also through play and real relationships with peers.

A preschooler has a strong desire to be involved in adult life, to actively participate in it, but this is not available to him. He strives for independence. From this contradiction, role-playing game is born - an independent activity of children that models the life of adults.

Plot-based role-playing games appear towards the end of the child’s third year of life. Their appearance is associated with a number of conditions: the presence of various impressions from the environment, the accumulation of objective play actions, the presence of toys, the frequency of communication with adults, and the development of children’s independence.

Play activity throughout preschool age does not remain unchanged. There are main directions for the development of play activity throughout preschool age:

— change in the number of participants and relationships between them;

-enrichment of game actions; -development of the content of the story game; -expanding the theme of games; - change in requirements for the toy.

Famous psychologist D.B. Elkonin proposed to distinguish 4 levels (stages) of development of a plot-role-playing game, associated with the dynamics of the designated components. First stage.

The main content of the game is actions with objects. They are carried out in a certain sequence, although this sequence is often disrupted. The chain of actions is plot-based. The main subjects are everyday ones. The actions are monotonous and often repeated. The roles have not yet been designated. At the first stage of the plot-role-playing game, preschoolers willingly play with adults. Independent play is short-lived. As a rule, the stimulus for the emergence of a game is a toy or a substitute object previously used in the game.

Second phase

.
As at the first level, the main content of the game is actions with an object. However, now these actions unfold more fully and consistently, in accordance with the role that is already denoted by the word. The sequence of actions becomes the rule. The first interaction between participants occurs based on the use of a common toy (or direction of action). Associations of players are short-lived. The main subjects are everyday ones. The same game is repeated many times. Toys are not selected in advance, but children often use the same ones - their favorite ones. This one brings together 2 - 3 people. Third stage.
The main content of the game is still actions with objects.
However, they are complemented by actions aimed at establishing various contacts with playing partners. Roles are clearly defined and assigned before the game begins. Toys and objects are selected (most often during the game) in accordance with the role. The logic, nature of actions and their direction are determined by the role. This becomes the basic rule. The game more often proceeds as a joint one, although the interaction moves with the parallel action of partners who are not related to each other and are not correlated with the role. The duration of the game increases. The plots become more diverse: children reflect in their games not only everyday life, but also the work of adults, vibrant social phenomena. Fourth stage
.
The main content of the game is a reflection of the relationships and interactions of adults with each other. The themes of the games are varied; it is determined not only by the direct, but also by the indirect experience of children (playing out scenes from literary works, films, television programs, etc.). Games are joint and collective in nature. Associations of participants are stable. They are based on children’s interest in the same games, or on the basis of personal sympathies and affections. Games of this content are not only repeated for a long time, but also develop, become enriched, and exist for a long time. The game now clearly distinguishes the preparatory stage: the distribution of roles, the selection of game material, and sometimes its production (homemade toys). The requirements for compliance with life logic apply not only to actions, but also to the actions and role behavior of participants. The number of preschoolers involved in the game increases to 5-6 people. At the fourth stage, that is, towards senior preschool age, the individual characteristics of play activity in general and the play creativity of each child begin to appear quite clearly. In children who are “writers,” creative manifestations are associated primarily with the creation of game plots; they are characterized by the implementation of the game in speech and imagination. Such children early turn to play - fantasy. Children - “performers” - show playful creativity in the implementation of ideas when creating images of game characters, using a variety of means: facial expressions, gestures, speech intonation, commentary and evaluative speech. Children who are “directors” express themselves to the maximum in play-based organizational communication, acting as mediators in resolving controversial situations and conflicts, “conducting” the plans of partners in play activities, and facilitating their coordination. It must be taken into account that the distribution by level presented above is somewhat conditional. These levels reflect the general development of the plot-role-playing game, however, in a particular age group, adjacent levels, as a rule, coexist. Throughout preschool age, play as a leading activity has a significant impact on the development of the child.
It contributes to the accumulation of social experience. It is through play that children learn to fully communicate with each other. In the process of plot-role-playing creative play, children take on the roles of adults and, in a generalized form, in play conditions, reproduce the activities of adults and the relationships between them. A preschooler, choosing and performing an objective role, has a corresponding image - for example, mothers, doctors, teachers, drivers - and patterns of his actions. But although life in the game takes place in the form of ideas, it is emotionally rich and becomes his real life for the child. The game contributes to the development of not only communication with peers, but also the child’s voluntary behavior. The mechanism for controlling one’s behavior develops precisely in the game, and then manifests itself in other types of activities (in particular, educational activities). The game develops the motivational and need sphere of the child. New motives for activity and goals associated with them arise. In play, preschoolers learn to change their position, mentally put themselves in the place of another, take into account the requirements of the role and coordinate different points of view. Children’s lack of life experience and the desire to learn about everything as quickly as possible make preschoolers maximalists.” This happens,” “This doesn’t happen,” “This is good,” “This is bad” are common forms of children’s assessments expressed during the game. Hence the increased interest and respect for the rules. For older preschoolers, the main content of the game is obedience to the rules. Self-restraint and relationship discipline come to the fore. In play, children more easily coordinate their actions, obey and yield to each other, since this is part of the content of the roles they have taken on. The stage of role subordination and coordination of actions coincides with the emergence of a relatively long-term interest in one of their peers. In essence, play becomes an excuse for active communication for older preschoolers. However, acting together with another child in the face of almost complete absence of social skills is a very difficult task. In order to establish relationships with a peer and at the same time not lose his favor, the child looks for ways to mutual understanding.

In the game, the child learns to generalize objects and actions, use generalized meanings of words, etc. Entering into a play situation is a condition for various forms of mental activity of the child.

Game (namely, role-playing game) is the leading activity in preschool age. It largely ensures the development of the cognitive, emotional-volitional sphere, and communicative qualities.

Game as a method of teaching and education in kindergarten.

- a means of active enrichment of the individual, since it represents a free choice of various socially significant roles and positions, provides the child with activities that develop his unlimited capabilities and talents in the most appropriate use.

A game

- a type of unproductive activity, the motive of which lies in the process itself, and the goal is to obtain satisfaction for the player.

The game can be understood in different ways:

— game is a special type of human activity;

- the game is a means of influencing the players (since it is specially organized and has a specific goal);

-game - a special set of rules that require their execution;

-game is a special way of conditionally appropriating the world;

-game- as a form of pedagogical activity.

Any game can implement the entire range of the following functions:

1. emotionally developing function

;

2. diagnostic function

- hidden talents are revealed;

3. relaxation function

— excessive tension is reduced;

4. compensatory function

- gives a person what he lacks;

5. communicative function

- is an excellent means of communication;

6. self-realization function

- serves as a means to achieve desires and realize opportunities;

7. sociocultural function

— during the game a person masters sociocultural norms and rules of behavior;

8. therapeutic function

- Can serve as a treatment for human mental disorders.

Organizing a high-quality, useful game is a complex and painstaking process. The teacher must master this art (precisely formulate the rules, organize the space, choose the appropriate time, determine the plot of the game, select the game props and competently organize the beginning and ending) When organizing the game, he must choose one or two functions as the main goal that will be him the most important.

The role of play in education in kindergarten

When starting to organize play in kindergarten, educators rely on the already achieved level of development of the children, their inclinations, habits, abilities, and then systematically rebuild the existing interests of the children into the desired ones, increasing the requirements for them, patiently and persistently working on their spiritual growth.

It is important for kindergarten teachers to rely on the role of play in education

. But they should not equate play in a child only with entertainment. Let some games be fun entertainment, and others a favorite pastime during leisure hours. It’s good if no one is bored, everyone is busy with something, an interesting game. But not only this determines the inextricable connection between play and the entire process of education. Much depends on the methodology and technique of their organization, on the style of play, and most importantly on its quality. Only in this way can the role of play in education be realized.

The role of play in education

is that it is in games that children reveal their positive and negative qualities and the teacher gets the full opportunity to properly influence everyone together and each individual.

If the games really captivate the children, then the teacher also has at his disposal the necessary punitive measures, up to and including expelling children from the game for violating the rules or for bad behavior.

Despite the great role of play in education

it cannot be isolated, considered a mono-means, or expected to educate children through games alone.

The role of play in instilling the right attitude towards work is great. Very often it is possible to combine a game so successfully with the labor process that it will decorate the work, cultivate a constant love for it, and help to successfully master the skill.

The educational role of the game is that games teach children to live and work in a team, to take into account the interests of their comrades, to come to their rescue, to follow established rules, and to fulfill the requirements of discipline.

When planning work for the school year, educators set themselves goals and objectives through which they will develop the creative abilities of students, the physical capabilities of children, and help create a friendly children's team, i.e. make the most of the role of play in education. That is why games in all their diversity are widely used in educational work with children.

Most psychologists and teachers consider play in preschool age as an activity that determines the child’s mental development, as a leading activity, during which mental new formations arise.

Play is the most accessible type of activity for children; it is a way of processing impressions and knowledge received from the surrounding world. Already in early childhood, a child has the greatest opportunity in play, and not in any other activity, to be independent, to communicate with peers at his own discretion, to choose toys and use different objects, to overcome certain difficulties logically related to the plot of the game, its rules.

The goal of play therapy is not to change the child or remake him, not to teach him any special behavioral skills, but to give him the opportunity to “live” situations that excite him in the game with the full attention and empathy of an adult.

Using gaming technologies in the educational process, an adult needs to have empathy, goodwill, be able to provide emotional support, create a joyful environment, encourage any invention and fantasy of the child. Only in this case will the game be useful for the development of the child and the creation of a positive atmosphere of cooperation with adults.

At first they are used as separate game moments. Game moments are very important in the pedagogical process, especially during the period of adaptation of children in a child care institution. Starting from two to three years old, their main task is the formation of emotional contact, children’s trust in the teacher, the ability to see in the teacher a kind person, always ready to help (like a mother), an interesting partner in the game. The first play situations should be frontal, so that no child feels deprived of attention. These are games like “Round Dance”, “Catch-Up” and “Blowing Soap Bubbles”.

In the future, an important feature of gaming technologies that educators use in their work is that gaming moments penetrate into all types of children’s activities: work and play, educational activities and play, everyday household activities related to the implementation of the regime and play.

Role-playing game

- one of the creative games. In role-playing games, children take on certain functions of adults and, in playful, imaginary conditions specially created by them, reproduce (or model) the activities of adults and the relationships between them. In such a game, all the mental qualities and personality traits of the child are most intensively formed.

Children's independence in role-playing games is one of its characteristic features. Children themselves determine the theme of the game, determine the lines of its development, decide how they will reveal the roles, where the game will unfold. Uniting in a role-playing game, children choose partners of their own free will, set the game rules themselves, monitor implementation, and regulate relationships. But the most important thing in the game is the child embodying his view, his ideas, his attitude towards the event that he is acting out.

The main component of a role-playing game is the plot, which is the child’s reflection of certain actions, events, relationships from the life and activities of others. At the same time, his game actions (cooking dinner, turning the steering wheel of a car, etc.) are one of the main means of realizing the plot.

The plots of the games are varied. They are conventionally divided into:

1. Household (family games, kindergarten)

2. Production, reflecting the professional work of people (hospital, store, hairdresser)

3. Public (Birthday, library, school, flight to the moon)

The content of the role-playing game is embodied by the child through the role he takes on. A role is a means of realizing the plot and the main component of a role-playing game.

Directing play is a type of creative play. It is close to the role-playing game, but differs from it in that the characters in it are not other people (adults or peers, but toys depicting various characters. The child himself gives roles to these toys, as if animating them, he himself speaks for them different voices and he himself acts for them. Dolls, teddy bears, bunnies or soldiers become the protagonists of the child’s game, and he himself acts as a director, managing and directing the actions of his “actors”, which is why such a game is called directorial.

The integrated use of gaming technologies for different purposes helps prepare a child for school. From the point of view of the formation of motivational and emotional-volitional readiness for school, each play situation of communication between a preschooler and adults, with other children is for the child a “school of cooperation”, in which he learns to both rejoice in the success of a peer and calmly endure his own failures; regulate their behavior in accordance with social requirements, and equally successfully organize subgroup and group forms of cooperation. The problems of developing intellectual readiness for school are solved by games aimed at developing mental processes, as well as special games that develop elementary mathematical concepts in a child, introduce him to the sound analysis of words, and prepare his hand for mastering writing.

Thus, gaming technologies are closely related to all aspects of the educational work of a kindergarten and the solution of its main tasks. However, there is an aspect of their use that is aimed at improving the quality of the pedagogical process by solving situational problems that arise during its implementation. Thanks to this, gaming technologies turn out to be one of the mechanisms for regulating the quality of education in kindergarten: they can be used to level out negative factors that influence the decrease in its effectiveness. If children are systematically engaged in play therapy, they acquire the ability to manage their behavior, tolerate prohibitions more easily, become more flexible in communication and less shy, cooperate more easily, express anger more “decently,” and get rid of fear. Their play activities begin to be dominated by role-playing games depicting people’s relationships. Folk games with dolls, nursery rhymes, round dances, and joke games are used as one of the effective types of game therapy. Using folk games in the pedagogical process, educators not only implement the educational and developmental functions of gaming technologies, but also various educational functions: they simultaneously introduce students to folk culture. This is an important area of ​​the regional component of the kindergarten educational program, which is still insufficiently developed.

In theatrical games

(dramatization games) the actors are the children themselves, who take on the roles of literary or fairy-tale characters. Children do not invent the script and plot of such a game themselves, but borrow it from fairy tales, stories, films or plays. The task of such a game is to, without deviating from the well-known plot, reproduce the role of the character assumed as accurately as possible. The heroes of literary works become characters, and their adventures, life events, and changes by children’s imagination become the plot of the game.

The peculiarity of theatrical games is that they have a ready-made plot, which means the child’s activity is largely predetermined by the text of the work. Theatrical play is a rich field for children's creativity. Creative role-playing in a theatrical play is significantly different from creativity in a role-playing game. In role-playing games, the child is free to convey the image of role-playing behavior. In a theatrical play, the image of the hero, his main features, actions, and experiences are determined by the content of the work. The child's creativity is manifested in the truthful portrayal of the character. To implement it, the child must understand what the character is like, why he acts this way, and imagine his state and feelings. To play the role, the child must master a variety of visual means (facial expressions, body movements, gestures, expressive and intonation speech). Theatrical and play activities enrich children in general with new impressions, knowledge, skills, develop interest in literature and theater, form dialogical, emotionally rich speech, activate the vocabulary, and contribute to the moral and aesthetic education of each child.

Thus, the phenomenon of play should be treated as a unique phenomenon of childhood. Play is not only an imitation of life, it is a very serious activity that allows a child to assert himself and realize himself. By participating in various games, the child chooses characters that are closest to him and correspond to his moral values ​​and social attitudes. The game becomes a factor in the social development of the individual

Conclusion

So, play occupies an important place in the organization of children’s lives. Games are repeated daily, and on “their shoulders”, in favorable conditions, the children’s team grows and strengthens, with its inherent diversity of interests, the joy of communication, and social life skills. The games clearly show the level of social education, moral qualities, social behavior skills of children, and the level of their interests.

The process of play in preschoolers requires the involvement of the teacher, but with different goals, at different levels of development of relations between children. When a teacher enters the center of a child’s life - the circle of relationships that develop between children, then it is easy for him to navigate the organization of the game. From this follows the conclusion that it is necessary to master the skill of managing the game to such an extent that you are ready at any moment to show the children the game, play it with them, evaluate their achievements in mastering the rules and the still small but still existing technique of the game. For a child, mastering a new game means gaining new experiences. When the children master the game, then we will say: “Now you already know how to play yourself.” The more contact he has with children, the more often an adult acts as a connoisseur and advisor. The assessment should be made in a friendly manner, avoiding the tone of instruction or order.

We take the game as the life of children with all the contradictions, feelings, experiences, actions it contains, in general, with manifestations of an integral human personality. If for a child play is true life, then by organizing this life well and wisely we get great opportunities in raising children.

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