Exploring Child Play within the Framework of Cultural-Historical Psychology: Experience and Perspectives

Abstract

The paper reconstructs the history of the problem of the development of mind on the example of child play. It reveals how researchers from the cultural-historical school of thought explored the developmental function of play, recorded quantitative leaps in its development and attempted to reconstruct it — from the works of L.S. Vygotsky and his followers (activity approach to role play: A.N. Leontiev, D.B. Elkonin, N.Ya. Mikhaylenko, N.A. Korotkova and others) to the works of researchers who studied the very act of development in play (L.I. Elkoninova, T.V. Bazhanova, K.O. Yuryeva). It is argued that the concept of the cultural form of play that contains the Challenge (limited by possibilities of action, by risk) and the Response to it serves as a foundation not only for role-playing games, but also for games with rules and computer games too. The Challenge is associated with action which transforms the situation of acting and is typical of all forms of play that are required to tie together everything that is separated in an everyday behavior of a child.

Keywords

• history of child play
• ideal cultural form
• role play
• developmental act in play
• challenge in play