The cultural-historical approach provides the deep theoretical grounds for the analysis of children’s play. Vygotsky suggested three critical features of play: switching to an imaginary situation, taking on a play role, and acting according to a set of rules defined by the role. Collaboration, finding ideas and materials for creating an imaginary situation, defining play roles, and planning the plot are complex tasks for children. However, the question is, do children need educator’s support during the play to develop their executive functions, and to what extent? This experimental study was aimed at answering this inquiry. The four modes of sociodramatic play were created which differed in the adult intervention, from non-involvement in the play to its entire organization. The play could be child-led (with adult help), adult-led, or free (without any adult intervention); and there was also a control group where the children heard the same stimulus stories as the other groups but then followed them up with a drawing activity instead of a play activity. The study revealed that, firstly, the ways of educator’s involvement in the play differed in their potential in respect to the development of executive functions, and, secondly, this influence was not equal for different components of executive functions. Free play in the experiment was not a beneficial condition for the development of any of the studied components of executive functions, compared to the conditions involving the participation of an adult in the play. Furthermore, the type of adult intervention stimulated the development of various executive functions. The entire organization of the play by the adult had a positive impact of their general development. In contrast, the adult’s assistance in the organization of the children’s play had a positive effect on the development of inhibitory control. The study results can be helpful when considering educational practices within a cultural-historical approach to engaging the potential of play in children’s learning and development around the world.

The current study aimed to validate the Russian version of the Child Behaviour Motivation Scale (CBeMO), examine gender differences in motivational tendencies, and explore the impact of executive functions on learning motivation tendencies among children. The sample consisted of 434 typically developing 5-6 years old children. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that according to the evaluation criteria, the model is poorly fitted to the data. However, internal consistency analysis confirmed acceptable levels of reliability and unidimensionality of the CBeMO scales. The identified internal structure of CBeMO indicates an overlap between CBeMO items related to task avoidance and social dependence on the Russian sample. The study revealed differences between girls and boys in all three CBeMO scales. Concerning executive functioning, it was revealed that motor persistence skills and working memory have an impact on the learning motivation tendencies among children, when controlling for group size, age, gender and non-verbal intelligence.

В статье представлены результаты адаптации русскоязычной версии методики Тест на понимание эмоций (Test of Emotion Comprehension; Pons, Harris, 2000). Адаптация методики проводилась в период с 2019 по 2020 г. на выборке 596 детей 5–6 лет. Спустя год 351 ребенок был повторно протестирован для оценки способности методики отражать возрастную динамику в развитии понимания эмоций. В целях изучения теоретической структуры, лежащей в основе инструмента, был применен конфирматорный факторный анализ. Эмпирические данные, полученные на российской выборке, подтвердили высокое соответствие русскоязычной версии инструмента ее оригинальной теоретической модели. Результат применения Q-теста Кохрана равенства пропорций указал на приемлемую надежность методики на основе внутренней согласованности ее компонентов. Валидность методики подтверждается наличием умеренных положительных связей общего уровня понимания эмоций и отдельных компонентов теста с распознаванием эмоций по лицевой экспрессии (Affect Recognition subtest NEPSY-II). Как и в оригинальной версии теста, на российской выборке не были выявлены гендерные различия ни по одному из компонентов теста. Анализ связанных с возрастом различий в успешности выполнения методики детьми при первичном и повторном тестировании показал, что количество правильных ответов по всем компонентам методики значимо увеличилось через год после первого обследования, что свидетельствует о способности методики отражать возрастную динамику. В результате работ по адаптации теста были получены российские нормы для детей 5–6 и 6–7 лет. Использование теста в дальнейшем открывает широкие возможности для международного сотрудничества в эмпирических целях для изучения природы понимания эмоций в дошкольном возрасте и в практических для диагностики или разработки программ эмоционального развития детей.

Background. The phenomenon of multilingualism and its impact on child development are in the spotlight of latter-day psychology, and of utmost importance both for theory and practice. Language development is a strong predictor of psychological readiness for school and further academic success. At the same time, children’s mastery of written and oral speech in school education in a multilingual environment has several distinctive features. This study was dedicated to examining the influence of executive functions on the development of the vocabulary aspects of speech (both active and passive vocabulary) of mono- and bilingual children growing up in a bilingual environment. Objective. We aimed to analyze the relationship between bilingualism and language development (vocabulary and verbal fluency) and determine which executive functions may help overcome the resulting difficulties at preschool age. Design. Both monolingual and bilingual children participated in the study (n=137 and n=81, respectively). The children’s ages ranged from 6 to 7 years (M=78.7 months, SD=5.87). Two independent General Linear Models (GLM) were built to define which executive functions influenced the vocabulary and verbal fluency of the mono- and bilingual subjects (controlling for age, gender, and non-verbal intelligence as well). Results. The results confirmed that bilingualism is negatively related to language development, but showed that verbal working memory significantly helps bilinguals compensate for difficulties in developing vocabulary and verbal fluency. Conclusion. The study demonstrated that the ability to preserve and reproduce verbal information was of more significance for children’s vocabulary and verbal fluency than their language group (mono- or bilingual).

Background. During the lockdown for COVID-19, children were limited in a number of activities which are essential for the development of executive functions (play, social interaction, and organized sport). Earlier studies found an increase in executive function issues in children during the pandemic, based on caregivers’ reports. Objective. The present study was a pioneer in exploring the dynamics of children’s executive function development during the lockdown. Our purpose was to explore the effect of the lockdown on the growth of executive functions in children over a one-year period, as compared to their peers before the pandemic. Design. The sample consisted of two cohorts of children. All the children had been attending the same kindergartens but in different periods of time. The executive functions of both groups were assessed twice, with a year’s break in-between (the first group was assessed before the pandemic; the second, during the pandemic). These groups were comparable in gender composition, age, and family’s place of residence. Results. The results have confirmed concerns about the slower growth of executive functioning in children during the lockdown versus their peers before the pandemic, especially for cognitive flexibility and working memory. Inhibition was not significantly affected by the lockdown. Moderation analysis showed that the lockdown impacted girls differently than boys in terms of working memory. The negative effect of social restrictions on working memory was significantly higher in females. Conclusion. Our findings illuminate the negative effects the pandemic-related social restrictions had on the growth of children’s cognitive flexibility and working memory. For working memory, the effect of social isolation varied depending on the child’s gender.

Previous research has indicated that young children’s executive functions (EFs) can be bolstered through role-play [e.g. the ‘Batman^™ effect’; White et al.]. However, what is not clear is whether it is the role-playing of another’s perspective, or something about the role played, which is responsible for the Batman^™ effect. The current experiment investigated the effects of role-play of different roles (protagonist, villain, and sage) with different traits (benevolence, malevolence, skill) on 80 five- to six-year-old children’s EF performance. Results indicated significantly improved cold – but not hot – EF scores for the Sage and Control groups. Consistent with Vygotsky’s theory that children transfer imagined content into real-world applications, this study provides preliminary evidence that pretending to be someone with EF skills can bolster young children’s cold EF performance.