Vygotskian Approach to Play Development

Anna Iakshina, PhD, is an educational and developmental psychologist, a national ECERS expert. She is a researcher and lecturer in Laboratory of child development (Moscow City University).Igor Shiyan, PhD, Leader of “ChildLab” project (Wise Hart Ltd, UK). He has over 30 years of experience researching creativity, dialectical thinking, and anticipation in children and adults, as well as multiculturalism in education, based on Vygotsky’s approach.Milda Bredikyte is a Senior Researcher and Associate Professor at Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania since 2018. She teaches child development, narrative learning through play, and the Vygotskian theory of cultural development in childhood.

• ForewordIntroductionPART 1. CONCEPT OF PLAY: CULTURAL-HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON PLAYChapter 1.1. The Cultural-Historical Approach to Child Development: Understanding Play as a Leading ActivityMilda BredikyteChapter 1.2. Playing together and the incentives created by engaging in what-if scenariosNiklas Pramling, Eva Johansson, and Ingrid Pramling SamuelssonChapter 1.3. The Cultural Shaping of Thought: Vygotsky and BrunerKathy Sylva, Rasnaam Kaur Chapter 1.4. Researcher’s perspective on play: How researchers in an educational experiment develop play practices with teachers and engineersMarilyn Fleer, Monique Parkes, Anne Suryani, Ashwairi Kansakar, Jaideep Upadhyay, Sarah Thomas D’AlterioPART 2. TREASURES OF PLAY: THE ROLE OF PLAY IN A CHILD’S DEVELOPMENTChapter 2.1. Play as a Space for the Manifestation of Imagination and Creative Thinking in Preschool ChildrenOlga Shiyan and Igor Shiyan Chapter 2.2. Self-Regulation in Young Children’s Play: How the Player’s Role and Shared Play Perform Invisible but Crucial WorkAgnė Brandišauskienė and Milda Bredikyte Chapter 2.3. Play and emotional attunement: attuning and creating emotions in playGiedrė Sujetaitė-VolungevičienėChapter 2.4. Play and Children’s StoriesOlga Shiyan, Igor Shiyan, and Anna Iakshina Chapter 2.5. A pedagogical model of a Conceptual PlayWorld: A synthesis of play and learningMarilyn Fleer Chapter 2.6. Unleash the Child's Full Potential Today: Balancing between Families’ Cultural Expectations and Children’s Motivation for Developing Science and Mathematics Concepts through PlayAnamika Devi and Jennifer Cutri Chapter 2.7. Playing with LanguageAnnerieke Boland Chapter 2.8. Object-Oriented Play as a Foundation for Pretend PlayElizabeth Wynberg and Annerieke Boland Chapter 2.9. Play and entrance to new culture (of kindergarten): How cultural tools help to co-regulate in pretend play?Giedrė Sujetaitė-VolungevičienėPART 3. PLAY SUPPORT - THE ROLE OF AN ADULT IN SUPPORTING PLAYChapter 3.1 Play Development from 2 to 7 YearsMilda BredikyteChapter 3.2 Creating Environments for Play: Space, Time and Resource MattersMandy Andrews and Cassie GrijalvoChapter 3.3. Play Environment Rating Scale: representation of ideal form of play in environment and assessment for developmentAnna Iakshina, Igor Shiyan, and Olga ShiyanChapter 3.4. Mixed-age play: the zone of proximal development for older and younger childrenAnna IakshinaChapter 3.5. Cultural-Historical Approach to the Teacher’s Role in Collaborative Play with ChildrenAnna IakshinaChapter 3.6. Conditions for Playful Adults in KindergartenAnnerieke Boland and Ilse van Aerden3.7. Narrative Play and Learning Pedagogy for Promoting Children’s Independent PlayMilda Bredikyte and Monika Skerytė-Kazlauskienė