The psychological conception of the formation of action by stages has been one of the most significant contributions to activity theory. This conception can be understood in two ways: (1) in a broad way as general psychological conception and (2) in a straight way as a conception of the process of teaching and learning according to activity theory. We propose to consider the union of these two conceptual possibilities as a general methodological proposal for the study of development. The article offers a revision of the conception of gradual formation of action by stages according to modern educational needs in the sense of a union between Vigotsky’s and Galperin’s conception of psychological development. The article revises the possibility for usage of this methodology in a broad way as a general psychological conception, which might include modes of positive development together with developmental difficulties. From the point of view of an activity theory approach, brain functional systems might be understood as psycho-physiological dynamic mechanisms of actions and operations fulfilled by a subject. At the same time, the subject’s own action is always accomplished within the context of one or another cultural activity. The conception of the gradual formation of action by stages helps to plan and organize specific types of interactions between child and adult in significant cultural situations. The stages of formation of cultural action, discussed in the article, are: material action with objects, materialized actions with external symbols, perceptive concrete action with concrete images, perceptive symbolic action with perceptive symbols, and verbal actions. The orientation base of action is an essential part of action on each level. These stages differ from the original proposal within Galperin’s theory and offer a possibility to work with different kinds of actions: practical, intellectual, artistic, and physical actions. These types of actions might be used in educational processes in optimal situations and in situations with children with developmental difficulties. Our proposal opens a question about the types of actions which might be considered during the formation process, such as practical and intellectual actions. We discuss the usefulness of this psychological conception for the methods of assessment, correction, and teaching, which contribute to the development of the child.

According to Vigotskian conception, psychological development of children occurs within the frames of cultural activities. Each form of activity may be expressed as a kind of narration or personal emotional involvement experienced by a child in different periods of childhood. One of essential kinds such experience is playing activity, engaging collective participants in a global social situation: children and adults. Playing activity with variety of modes and types of games, different in diverse social and historical conditions, may provide interesting psychological opportunity to study content, structure and stages of same activity. Games may differ by a variety of parameters. In this study the authors are interested in presenting two kinds of expression of playing activity: organized games with external orientation introduce by adults. Such types of games imply communication and collaboration within groups of preschool children in preschool institutions. The article presents phases of introduction of playing activity, kinds of means of external orientation proposed by adults and examples of concrete games with procedure of implementation. The authors discuss qualitative achievements in psychological development of preschool children as a result of participation in playing activity. The authors conclude that essential methodological approach of historical and cultural conception of development should be used together with conception of psychological structures activity. Such an approach might be useful for qualitative understanding of meaningful development at preschool age.

The teaching of mathematics is a topic of concern in the fields of pedagogy, psychology and neuroscience. Many primary and secondary school students show little interest in studying mathematics, which is accompanied by poor marks, low school success rates and learning disabilities. It is possible to think that these difficulties are general throughout the population and not related only to pathological developmental conditions and disabilities. Within psychology, the cultural-historical approach and activity theory allow us to analyse and characterize the content of educational methods. This study analyses three proposals for teaching mathematics in the third year of preschool education in Mexico according to type of orientation, the concepts taught, the actions the teacher does with the students and the classroom communication. It discusses the need to reconsider the content of educational work in preschool institutions in order to guarantee children’s optimal level of preparation for the conceptual learning of mathematics in primary school.

Educational isolation, as a consequence of the global pandemic, has become an obstacle for guiding activity of pre-school age for a period of over one year. Online education did not include collective playing activity; actually, simultaneous modality of sessions was not at all applied in many public and private pre-school institutions in Latin America. The goal of the article is to show a unique experience of organizing collective sessions of playing with social roles by a preschool institution in Mexico. The results show the necessity of modification of some of the elements of the structure of playing activity, such as the means and the orientation of the activity. A broad variety of means at concrete, perceptive and verbal level were used for online playing. The part of orientation of action was separated from the part of realization of playing to guarantee the process of collective playing. The favorable and negative aspects of organization of online playing activity with social roles are discussed. The conclusions claim for the necessity of profound analysis of online modality of education for psychological development together with urgent re-conceptualization of the content of pre-school period as a period of affective communication and preparation for studying at school.

El tema de las condiciones óptimas para el desarrollo verbal del niño preescolar menor aún sigue abierto en psicología, y surge la pregunta acerca de la naturaleza de dichas condiciones. Desde la teoría de la actividad se plantea la posibilidad de análisis de fenómenos del desarrollo no como procesos aislados, sino como elementos de la actividad que predomina en el desarrollo del niño en una u otra etapa. El objetivo de este estudio fue establecer una relación entre la adquisición de las acciones objetales y la producción verbal en niños preescolares menores.En el estudio se valoraron los niveles de adquisición de la acción objetal, comunicación verbal en el juego y la forma de interacción entre niño y adultos que predomina en familia. Para las interacciones con los niños se utilizó el Protocolo para Evaluación del desarrollo para niños preescolares menores (Solovieva & Quintanar, 2014), mientras que con los cuidadores se aplicó una entrevista para precisar el tipo de acciones y orientaciones predominantes en familia. Se identificó una relación entre ambos fenómenos estudiados y una correlación significativa entre el nivel de adquisición de las acciones con objetos, expresiones verbales y orientación parental. Se precisaron las etapas de adquisición de acciones con objetos y el paso al inicio de la adquisición de la función simbólica con el rol específico de uso de juguetes animados. Se discute la utilidad del protocolo para diagnóstico e interacción con niños preescolares, así como para la formulación de programas de intervención y desarrollo en esta edad.