Features of role-playing games in preschool age

Continuation. (beginning: What is a role-playing game?)

Preschool childhood is the most important period of personality development. During these years, the child acquires initial knowledge about the life around 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 children is play; it develops the child’s spiritual and physical strength; his attention, memory, imagination, discipline, dexterity. In addition, play is a unique way of learning social experience, characteristic of preschool age. In play, all aspects of a child’s personality are formed and developed; significant changes occur in his psyche, which prepare the transition to a new, higher stage of development.

Psychologists consider play to be the leading activity of a preschooler.

A special place in the activities of a preschooler is occupied by games that are created by the children themselves, these are creative or role-playing games. In them, children reproduce in roles everything that they see around them in the life and activities of adults. In play, the child begins to feel like a member of a team; he can fairly evaluate the actions and actions of his comrades and his own.

Main features of a role-playing game

1. Compliance with the rules.

The rules regulate the actions of the child and the teacher and say that sometimes you have to do something that you don’t want to do. It’s difficult for adults to do something they don’t like, but for a child it’s hundreds of times more difficult. The ability to act according to the rule does not just appear in a child. An important stage of preschool development is role-playing play, where obedience to the rule follows from the very essence of the game.

By mastering the rules of role behavior in the game, the child also masters the moral norms contained in the role. Children master the motives and goals of the activities of adults, their attitude to their work, to events and phenomena of social life, to people, things: in the game a positive attitude is formed towards the way of life of people, towards the actions, norms and rules of behavior in society.

2. Social motive of games.

The social motive is laid down in the role-playing game. Play is an opportunity for a child to find himself in the world of adults, to understand the adult system himself. When the game reaches its peak, it becomes insufficient for the child to replace relationships with the game, as a result of which the motive to change his status matures. The only way he can do this is to go to school.

3. In the role-playing game there is emotional development.

A child’s play is very rich in emotions, often ones that are not yet available to him in life. Many domestic psychologists asked the following questions: “Does the child experience feelings or just portray them? What influence do they have on the formation of the child’s moral character?” A. N. Leontyev believes that in the very depths of the genesis of the game, in its very origins, there are emotional foundations. The study of children's games confirms the correctness of this idea. The child distinguishes play from reality; the speech of preschoolers often contains the following words: “as if,” “make believe,” and “in truth.” But despite this, gaming experiences are always sincere. The child is not pretending: the mother truly loves her doll daughter, the driver is seriously concerned about whether he will be able to save his friend who was in an accident.

The outstanding Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky also noted that although the child creates imaginary situations during role-play, the feelings he experiences are very real. “Katya is a mother,” says the tiny girl, and, trying on a new role, she plunges into an imaginary world. And, regardless of whether her “daughter” was bought in an expensive toy store or sewn by a caring grandmother from Katya’s old tights, the little mother does not just repeat after her elders the manipulations that are supposed to be performed on babies, but experiences a real feeling of maternal love for her “ baby."

As the game and game design become more complex, children's feelings become more conscious and complex. And fa both reveals the child’s experiences and shapes his feelings. When a child imitates the astronauts, he will convey his admiration for them and his dream of becoming the same. And at the same time, new feelings arise: responsibility for the assigned task, joy and pride when it is successfully completed. I.M. Sechenov gave a physiological justification for the importance of play for the formation of feelings; he proved that play experiences leave a deep imprint on the child’s consciousness. Repeated repetition of the actions of adults and imitation of their moral qualities influence the formation of the same qualities in the child.

From the above, we can conclude that role-playing game is a school of feelings, in which the child’s emotional world is formed.

4. During the course of role-playing games, the preschooler’s intelligence develops.

The development of a plan in a role-playing game is associated with the general mental development of the child, with the formation of his interests. Preschool children develop an interest in various life events, in different types of adult work; they have favorite book characters whom they strive to imitate. As a result, the ideas of games become more persistent, sometimes taking over their imagination for a long time. Some games (in “sailors”, “pilots”, “cosmonauts”) continue for weeks, gradually developing. The emergence of a long-term perspective of the game speaks of a new, higher stage in the development of gaming creativity. In this case, there is no repetition of the same theme day after day, as happens with children, but a gradual development, enrichment of the planned plot. Thanks to this, children's thinking and imagination become purposeful. The child's prolonged stay in one role forces him to delve deeper into the meaning of what he portrays.

5. Role-playing games develop imagination and creativity.

Planned, coordinated actions in long-term role-playing games are combined with improvisation. Children outline a general plan, a sequence of actions, and during the game new ideas and new images arise. So, during a multi-day “sea voyage”, first one or the other participant in the game came up with new interesting episodes: divers sank to the bottom of the sea and found treasures, in hot countries they caught lions and took them to the zoo, in Antarctica they fed polar bears. The development of gaming creativity is also reflected in how various life experiences are combined in the content of the game. Already at the end of the third and fourth years of children’s lives, one can observe that they combine different events in play, and sometimes they can include episodes from fairy tales that were shown to them in the puppet theater. For children of this age, vivid visual impressions are important. Later (in the fourth and fifth years of life), children incorporate new experiences into their old favorite games. Reflecting life in a game, repeating life impressions in different combinations - all this helps the formation of general ideas and makes it easier for the child to understand the connection between different phenomena of life.

To implement a plan in a role-playing game, a child needs toys and various objects that help him act in accordance with the role he has taken on. If the necessary toys are not at hand, then children replace one object with another, endowing it with imaginary characteristics. This ability to see non-existent qualities in an object is one of the characteristic features of childhood. The older and more developed children are, the more demanding they are about the objects of play, the more similarities they look for with reality.

6. Speech development.

The role of words is especially important in creating an image. The word helps the child to identify his thoughts and feelings, understand the experiences of his partners, and coordinate his actions with them. The development of purposefulness and the ability to combine is associated with the development of speech, with the ever-increasing ability to put one’s ideas into words.

L. S. Vygotsky argued that the development of children's imagination is directly related to the acquisition of speech. Children delayed in their speech development are also retarded in the development of imagination.

There is a two-way connection between speech and play. On the one hand, speech develops and becomes more active in the game, and on the other hand, the game itself develops under the influence of speech development. The child uses words to designate his actions, and thereby comprehends them; He also uses words to complement actions and express his thoughts and feelings. In older preschool age, sometimes entire episodes of play are created using words. The role of the word is especially noticeable in the so-called director's games, where the child does not take on a role, as in a regular game, but moves dolls and other toys and speaks for them. There is an element of directing in every game with dolls. “Mom” speaks and acts both for herself and for her doll daughter.

MAGAZINE Preschooler.RF

N.V. Mikhachik, teacher at MBDOU “Child Development Center – Kindergarten No. 9 “Rodnichok”, Nyandoma

“A game is in no way an exercise in some particular function. This is the form of life of a preschooler, the main means of his development and the formation of specific human abilities...” D.B. Elkonin

In the context of the implementation of the Federal State Educational Standard and the requirements for the basic general education program of preschool education, a significant difference is the exclusion of educational activities from the educational process as not corresponding to the patterns of child development at the stage of preschool childhood. It becomes urgent for preschool teachers to search for other forms and methods of working with children.

At each age, there is a leading activity, within which new types of activity arise, mental processes develop, and mental new formations arise.

Play is undoubtedly the leading activity of a preschooler. It is through play that a child learns about the world and prepares for adult life. When properly organized, the game creates conditions for the development of the child’s physical, intellectual and personal qualities, the formation of prerequisites for educational activities and ensuring the social success of the preschooler. Three interconnected lines of child development: feel-know-create harmoniously fit into the child’s natural environment - a game, which for him is both entertainment and a way of understanding the world of people, objects, nature, as well as the sphere of application of his imagination. The game acts as a kind of bridge from the world of children to the world of adults, where everything is intertwined and interconnected.

A number of conditions contribute to the successful implementation of gaming activities and increasing the effectiveness of play development in preschoolers:

1. Free and voluntary inclusion of children in the game: not imposition of games, but involvement in it.
2. Children must understand well the meaning and content of the game, its rules, and the idea of ​​each game role.
3. The game should have a positive impact on the development of the emotional-volitional, intellectual and rational-physical spheres of its participants. With the help of the organization of gaming technologies, children are given the social experience of playing (teaching gaming skills).
4. A sufficient amount of time for play and the availability of those toys that help children realize their plans, i.e. creation of an object-game environment.
5. When creating a play environment, the gender differences of children should be taken into account (the interests of both girls and boys should be respected equally); carry out timely changes in the play environment, taking into account the enriching life and play experience of children and in accordance with their interests.

There are different types of games - active, didactic, theatrical and role-playing.

Psychologists rightly believe that role-playing play is the highest form of development of children's play. The child grows and develops, and the game develops with him - from the simplest everyday plots he moves to more complex ones, reflecting all areas of human activity.

Role-playing games are of great importance in the mental development of a child, developing voluntary attention, memory, imagination, and creativity. The rules that are mandatory when playing the game instill in children the ability to control their behavior, impulsiveness, and negotiate with partners, contributing to the formation of character. While playing together with peers, children learn to communicate and the ability to take into account the desires and actions of others.

Playing a role-playing game, getting used to some image, the child reproduces his impressions, rethinks and reveals them.

The basis of the role-playing game is an imaginary or imaginary situation, which consists in the fact that the child takes on the role of an adult and performs it in a play environment created by him.

Children's independence in role-playing games is one of its characteristic features. Children themselves choose the theme of the game, determine the line of its development, decide how they will reveal the roles, where the game will unfold, etc.

Each child is free to choose the means of embodying the image.

The main structural component of a role-playing game is the plot. Without it there is no game itself. Throughout human history, the plots of children's games have changed.

The stories are divided:

• Social services (family, kindergarten)
• Production ones, reflecting the professional work of people (games of hospital, store, car, etc.).
• Public (celebration of City Day, school)

Another structural component of a role-playing game is content.

The content of the game is what is reproduced by the child as the central and characteristic moment of activity and relationships between people in their everyday and social activities (D. B. Elkonin).

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 one of the main components of a role-playing game.

Every role contains its own rules of behavior, taken by the child from the life around him. Submission of the child to these rules is the most important element of role-playing play.

In the game, as in any activity of children, the teacher plays a leading role. In the game, adults teach children a lot and shape their moral qualities.

The teacher's advice and suggestions support the children's interest in the game and help bring it to the end. This is important for developing perseverance and focus in preschoolers.

When leading a role-playing game, the teacher must always remember that it is necessary to develop the initiative, independence of children, preserve their spontaneity, and the joy of play. Any kind of coercion should be excluded from the methods of managing the game, never fantasize for the child, do not invent a game for him. Only with such guidance does gaming creativity develop successfully.

Methods of managing children's play can be divided into traditional (R.I. Zhukovskaya, D.V. Mendzheritskaya) and new (N.Ya. Mikhailenko, N.A. Korotkova, E.V. Zvorygina, S.L. Novoselova)

D.V. Mendzheritskaya argued that the teacher has the right to intervene in the game if this is required in order to give her the right direction. But an adult’s intervention will only be successful when he enjoys sufficient respect and trust from children. She believed that the main way a teacher influences children’s play and raising children in play is through influence on its content, i.e. on the choice of topic, plot development, distribution of roles.

A N.Ya. Mikhailenko and N.A. Korotkova believe that in order for children to master gaming skills, the teacher must play with the children. They propose to consider the management of role-playing games as a process of gradually transferring to preschoolers increasingly complex ways of constructing a game. The transfer is carried out in joint play between an adult and children.

Techniques for directing a role-playing game can be direct and indirect.

Direct guidance involves direct adult intervention in children's play. It can be expressed in role-playing participation in the game, in participation in the collusion of children, in clarification, in providing assistance, advice during the game, or in proposing a new topic for the game.

Indirect guidance of play is especially fruitful when working with preschool children. The teacher expresses his judgments while playing with children exclusively in the form of advice, without demanding strict obedience.

Watching the play of children in the second younger group, we saw that children not only play little, but also do not know how to play. This means that the child does not develop activity, imagination, creativity, or important communication skills. We set ourselves the goal of teaching children to play role-playing games. And through play, expand children’s knowledge about the work of adults. For the first acquaintance with this topic, we chose the profession of a doctor.

Based on these goals, we developed the project “Introduction to the professions of a doctor and a nurse .

Project participants: teacher, medical worker, children and parents of the second junior group.

Project type: short-term; cognitive-research; creative and informational.

Problem: Every profession is unique. Children of primary preschool age do not have clear ideas about the variety of work activities of adults. Children do not clearly understand the specifics of a doctor’s work, what objects he needs in his work, and do not know how to develop role-playing interaction - role-playing dialogue.

The relevance of the project lies in the fact that through acquaintance with the professions of a doctor and a nurse, preschoolers enrich their knowledge and ideas about the work of adults, expand their vocabulary, and also learn about the importance and significance of this profession.

The goal is to form a holistic understanding of preschoolers about the profession of a doctor and nurse through different types of children's activities.

Tasks:

• To develop in children the ability to play according to their own plans, to stimulate children’s creative activity in play.
• To form friendly relationships in the game, a sense of humanism, activity, responsibility, friendliness.
• Help create a game environment, establish interaction between those who have chosen certain roles.
• Enrich children's understanding of the profession of a doctor and nurse;
• Continue to accumulate and expand children's vocabulary;
• Develop the ability to reproduce in play various actions that children observe in life, using substitute objects;
• Develop children's creative abilities through productive activities;
• Develop activity and curiosity.

Planned result:

• Gaining knowledge about the profession of a doctor and nurse;
• Expanding children's vocabulary;
• The ability to reproduce in play various actions that children observe in life;
• Development of communication skills;
• Development of creative abilities in children.
• Development of such qualities as: curiosity, activity.

Project stages:

1. Organizational and preparatory stage

• collection of material necessary for the implementation of the project;
• development of notes of conversations, game situations;
• updating attributes for role-playing games;
• production of didactic games and manuals;
• selection of fiction;
• replenishment of the development environment;
• preparing an album with plot pictures on the topic “The work of a doctor and a nurse .

2. Practical (main) stage

• Conversations “Who will come to our aid?” , “How should you behave in a doctor’s office?” , “Why do we need vaccination?”
• Reading fiction by K. Chukovsky “Aibolit” , V. Suteev “About the hippopotamus who was afraid of vaccinations” , E. Blaginina “Sick Bunny” .
• Discussion of plots, actions of heroes.
• Excursion to the medical office.
• Game situations “Katya the doll got sick” , “So that the tooth bites” .
• Didactic games “Useful - harmful” .
• GCD "What's in the bag?"
• Looking at pictures on the topic “The work of a doctor and a nurse .
• Making a poster “What’s in a doctor’s suitcase?”
• GCD (drawing) “Onion”
• GCD (modeling) “Vegetables and fruits”
• GCD (application) “Ambulance”
• Board games: “Professions” , “Profession Lotto” .
• Parents' help in replenishing the "hospital" - sewing doctor's and nurse's gowns.
• Design of travel folders for parents on the topics: “Healthy lifestyle” , “Role-playing game” , “Role-playing games for children from 2 to 4 years old” , “Games with dolls” .

3. Final stage

• Organization of the role-playing game “Hospital”
• Exhibition of children's works
• Presentation “Introduction to the professions of a doctor and a nurse”

Observing preschoolers in their activities, we noticed that at the end of the project the children began to use the role-playing game “Hospital” and played it with great interest and success.

Children have developed basic gaming skills that allow them to deploy a number of interconnected conditional objective actions during the game and attribute them to a specific character (role).

Analyzing the results of the project, we realized that the use of role-playing games for the comprehensive development of a child and the formation of his positive personal qualities is very relevant.

List of information sources:

*

1. Elkonin D.B. Psychology of the game. M., 1978
2. Zvorygina E.V. Children's first story games. M: Enlightenment. 1988
3. Zvorygina E. Komarova N. Pedagogical conditions for the formation of role-playing games. // Preschool education. 1989 No. 5.
4. Mikhailenko N.Ya. Organization of story-based games in kindergarten: a manual for teachers / N.Ya. Mikhailenko, N.A. Korotkova. – 3rd ed., rev. – M: LINKA-PRESS, 2009.
5. Tkachenko I.V., Bogachkina N.A. I play - it means I live interestingly. M: DROFA, 2008

Types of role-playing games:

1. Games with everyday themes : “home”, “family”, “holidays”, “birthdays”. And these games are occupied by games with dolls, through actions with which children convey what they know about their peers, adults, and their relationships.

2. Games on industrial and social themes , which reflect the work of people. For these games, themes are taken from the surrounding life (school, store, library, post office, hairdresser, hospital, transport (bus, train, plane, ship), police, firefighters, circus, theater, menagerie, plant, factory, mine, construction, collective farm, army).

3. Games on heroic-patriotic themes , reflecting the heroic deeds of our people (war heroes, space flights, etc.).

4. Games on themes of literary works, cinema, television and radio programs : “sailors” and “pilots”, Hare and Wolf, crocodile Gena and Cheburashka (according to the content of the cartoons), four “tankers” and a dog (according to the content of the film ) etc. In these games, children reflect entire episodes from literary works, imitating the actions of the heroes, adopting their behavior.

5. “Director’s” games , in which the child makes the dolls speak and perform various actions. At the same time, he acts on two levels - both for the doll and for himself, directing all actions. Participants in the game think through a scenario in advance, which can be based on episodes from familiar fairy tales, short stories, or their own lives. Children “teach” the puppets of the puppet and finger theaters, and the toy theater to “act” in accordance with the role they take on, endowing them with literary or imaginary characteristics.

Levels of development of role-playing games

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. Children's actions are monotonous and often repeated. Roles are not designated. In form it is a side-by-side game or a single player game. Children 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 that was previously used in the game.

Second phase . The main content of the game is actions with an object. 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 are short-lived. The main subjects are everyday ones. The same game can be repeated many times. Toys are not selected in advance, but children often use the same ones - their favorite ones. The game can already unite 2-3 people.

Third stage . The main content of the game is also 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. Logics; the nature of actions and their direction are determined by the role. This becomes the basic rule. The game often proceeds as a joint game, although interaction is interspersed with parallel actions 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 everyday life, the work of adults and 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 games can be varied: it is determined not only by the direct, but also by the indirect experience of children. Games are joint and collective in nature. Associations are stable. They are built either on children’s interest in the same games, or on the basis of personal sympathies and affections. Games of the same content are not only repeated for a long time, but also develop, become enriched, and exist for a long time.

In the game at this stage, the preparatory work is clearly distinguished: the distribution of roles, the selection of game material, and sometimes its production (homemade toys). The requirement to comply with the logic of life applies not only to actions, but also to all actions and role behavior of the participants. Up to 5-6 people are involved in the game.

The above levels reflect the general development of role-playing games, but in a specific age group adjacent levels coexist.

Based on the concept of N. Ya. Mikhailenko, the development of story-based play at different age stages can be presented in the following summary table.

GAME STORIES AND CONTENTS

The main component of a role-playing game is the plot; without it, there is no role-playing game itself. The plot of the game is the sphere of reality that is reproduced by children. The plot is a child’s reflection of certain actions, events, relationships from the life and activities of those around him. At the same time, his playful actions ( turning the steering wheel of a car, preparing lunch, teaching students how to draw, etc.) are one of the main means of realizing the plot.

The plots of the games are varied. Conventionally, they are divided into household (family games, kindergarten), industrial, reflecting the professional work of people (games in a hospital, store, livestock farm), public (games in celebration of the city’s birthday, in the library, school, flight to the moon).

Throughout the history of mankind, the plots of children's games change because they depend on the era, economic characteristics, cultural, geographical, and natural conditions. Thus, the games of children of the peoples of the North reflect the hunting of seals, walruses, and the work of reindeer herders. Children living in coastal regions play shipbuilders, work in the port, and greet tourists.

But, in addition, in every era there were serious, sometimes extreme events that significantly affected people's lives and evoked an emotional response in children and adults. Such events always gave rise to new stories for children's games. For many years, the children of our country played the Great Patriotic War (battles, bombings, evacuation of civilians, hospital, partisans, siege of Leningrad, Victory Parade, etc.). After Yuri Gagarin's flight into space (April 12, 1961), children from many countries around the world began to play in the exploration of interplanetary space (building rockets, going to Mars, the Moon, working on the Mir space station).

In the history of mankind, there are also “eternal” plots of children’s games that seem to connect generations of people: games of family, school, treatment of the sick, etc. Naturally, these plots in the games of children of different times and peoples differ in their content, just as they differ in the very life.

The content of the game, notes D. B. Elkonin, is what is reproduced by the child as a central and characteristic moment of activity and relationships between adults in their everyday, work, and social activities.

Depending on the depth of the child’s ideas about the activities of adults, the content of the games also changes. For example, children in the younger group, pretending to be a doctor in the game, repeated the same actions many times: they measured the temperature, looked at the patient’s throat. After the kids were vaccinated, new actions were added to the game image of the doctor. Children from the older group, when agreeing to play hospital, specified which specialists would treat the patients: a surgeon, an ophthalmologist, a pediatrician. Depending on the doctor’s specialization, each player performed specific actions, while the doctors spoke kindly to the patients, persuaded them not to be afraid of injections, operations, dressings, and to take medications more boldly. Thus, the content of the game expresses different levels of the child’s penetration into the activities of adults. Initially, only the external side of the activity is “grabbed” in real life and reflected in the game (with which a person acts: “a person is an object”). Then, as the child understands the relationship of a person to his activity, the elementary comprehension of the social meaning of work, the games begin to reflect the relationships between people (“person - person”), and the objects themselves are easily replaced (a cube is a bar of soap, bread, an iron, a typewriter) or They only imagine themselves (“as if I had scuba gear and was sinking to the bottom of the ocean”).

In terms of content, the games of children of primary preschool age differ These differences are associated with the relative limitations of experience, features of the development of imagination, thinking, and speech. The child cannot imagine the game before it starts and does not grasp the logical sequence between real events. Therefore, the content of the games, as A.P. Usova noted, is fragmentary and illogical. Children often repeat in play actions with toys shown by adults and related to everyday life: fed the bear - put him to bed; I fed him again and put him to bed again. A.P. Usova characterized such games as action games. Moreover, interest in actions often dominates, so the goal of the game escapes the child’s field of vision. For example, Olya sat her daughters down at the table, went to cook dinner, got carried away with working with pots and pans, and her daughters remained unfed.

However, at the border between the third and fourth years of life, games become more meaningful, which is associated with the expansion of children’s ideas about the world around them. Preschoolers begin to combine different events, including in games episodes from their own experience and from literary works that were read to them or, which is especially valuable, shown through plot-didactic games, illustrations in books, table theater, and filmstrips.

In the fourth and fifth years of life, the integrity of the plot and the interconnectedness of the reflected events are observed in children’s games. Preschoolers develop an interest in certain scenes that they have played with before (family, hospital, construction workers, transport, etc.). Children respond vividly to new experiences, weaving them like storylines into familiar games. The enrichment of content is facilitated by the interaction of children in the game, when everyone contributes something of their own, individual. For example, Seryozha, whose father is a captain of a river steamer, invites the “teacher” to take the children on a ride along the Moscow River. Having received consent, he builds a steamboat out of chairs and welcomes passengers on board. At this age, generalization and truncation of situations depicted in the game begin, which are well mastered by the child in real life and do not arouse special interest in him. So, if children, playing in kindergarten, eat for a long time and drink from cups, then children of the fifth year of life finish lunch barely raising a spoon to their mouth. Sometimes children limit themselves to symbolic actions: a sailor floats around a room that has become “like the sea.”

Children of senior preschool age thoughtfully approach the choice of plot, discuss it in advance, and plan the development of the content at an elementary level. New stories are appearing that are inspired by impressions gleaned outside the preschool: based on cartoon series, books read at home, stories from parents, etc. Travel games, including space games, have now become widespread: the scope of displaying the work of adults has expanded (service work in bank, transport, security and law enforcement services, etc.).

In older and preschool age, generalization of play situations continues; in addition to conditional and symbolic actions (put his head on his palm - he fell asleep), children actively use verbal comments (“Everyone seems to have slept - and we’ll immediately go to the hall for the holiday!”; “Let’s do this: we’ve already arrived in Africa!”). These speech comments are a verbal replacement of any events. Children resort to them so as not to violate the logic of the unfolding of the game’s content.

Thus, throughout preschool childhood, the development and complication of the content of the game is carried out in the following areas:

- strengthening the focus, and therefore the consistency and coherence of what is depicted;

- a gradual transition from an expanded game situation to a collapsed one, generalization of what is depicted in the game (the use of conditional and symbolic actions, verbal substitutions).

The variety of content of role-playing games is determined by children’s knowledge of those aspects of reality that are depicted in the game, the consonance of this knowledge with the interests, feelings of the child, and his personal experience. Finally, the development of the content of games depends on the child’s ability to identify characteristic features in the activities and relationships of adults.

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.

For a child, a role is his playing position: he identifies himself with some character in the plot and acts in accordance with the ideas about this in the game . Every role contains its own rules of behavior, taken by the child from the surrounding life, borrowed from relationships in the adult world. So, the mother takes care of the children, prepares food for them, puts them to bed; The teacher speaks loudly and clearly, is strict, demands that everyone listen to her and not be naughty in class. Submission of the child to the rules of role-playing behavior is the most important element of role-playing play. Deviation of any of the players from these rules causes protests from the playing partners: “You can’t argue with the captain!” or: “The captains give orders loudly, and you ask the sailor to wash the deck!” Thus, for preschoolers, a role is an example of how to act. Based on this sample, the child evaluates the behavior of the participants in the game, and then his own.

The role appears in the game at the border between early and preschool age. In the third year of life, the child’s emancipation from the adult is observed. At the same time, the preschooler’s desire to act independently, but like an adult, grows. Then, while playing, the baby begins to perform individual actions characteristic of an adult (putting the doll to sleep, like a mother), although he does not call himself by the adult’s name. These are the first beginnings of the role. One more sign should be included among them: the child “voices” the toy, speaking on its behalf.

Throughout preschool childhood, the development of role in role-playing games occurs from the performance of role-playing actions to role-images. For younger preschoolers , everyday activities predominate: cooking, bathing, washing, driving, etc. Then role designations associated with certain actions appear: I am a mother, I am a driver, I am a doctor. The role taken gives a certain direction and meaning to actions with objects: the mother chooses toys or objects for play that are necessary for preparing dinner, bathing the child; the doctor selects a pencil thermometer for treatment, tears up pieces of paper for mustard plasters, pours imaginary medicine from a bottle, etc. Children prefer to play the roles of those adults whose activities require certain paraphernalia: the mother has a set of household items, the doctor has medical instruments, medicines , the driver has a vehicle. Thus, when playing a role, children of primary preschool age use toys, real objects (a spoon, a basin for bathing a doll), as well as substitute objects (a pencil or stick becomes a knife, spoon, thermometer, syringe in the game). Role-playing interaction between the players is carried out through object-based game actions: the doctor treats the patient, measuring the temperature, giving injections, etc.

In middle preschool age, playing a role becomes a significant motive for play activity: the child develops a desire not just to play, but to fulfill one or another role. The point of the game for a 4-5 year old preschooler is the relationships between the characters. Therefore, the child willingly takes on those roles in which the relationships are clear to him (the teacher takes care of the children, the captain steers the ship, makes sure that the sailors work well and that the passengers are comfortable). The child depicts these relationships in play using speech, facial expressions, and gestures. At this age, role speech becomes a means of interaction. Since children develop a selective attitude towards certain roles, their distribution before the start of the game is a rather emotional process. The teacher's help is necessary.

In older preschool age, the meaning of the game lies in the typical relationships of the person whose role is played by the child with other persons whose roles are taken on by other children. In games, role-playing dialogues appear, with the help of which the relationships between characters are expressed and game interaction is established. For the quality of role performance, the child’s attitude towards it is important. Therefore, it should be borne in mind that older preschoolers are reluctant to perform roles that, in their opinion, do not correspond to their gender. Thus, boys refuse to play the role of a teacher, the head of a preschool institution, and in the game of school they agree to be only a physical education teacher. When performing a role, the child takes into account not so much the external logic, the sequence of actions (there is a free runway at the airfield, which means the plane can land), but the meaning of social relations (the runway is free, but you need to ask the dispatcher so that an accident does not happen).