The event, which brought together a wide audience of educators, psychologists, child development researchers, and parents, was dedicated to the presentation of key findings from the large-scale longitudinal project "Rastem Vmeste" ("Growing Together").
In an era of rapid technological progress, when practitioners and families face new challenges in education and training every day, relying on representative scientific research conducted in a rigorous, evidence-based manner rather than on situational trends is particularly valuable.
Opening the lecture, the meeting's moderator, Arina Kisel, Executive Director of the IPAPE, emphasized that today's children differ significantly not only from our childhoods but also from the generations described by classic pedagogical and psychological thinkers of the past. They are growing up in a completely different information, technological, and social environment. To understand what our children are like today, what their needs are, and how to help them realize their potential, large-scale and in-depth scientific research is needed.
The speaker was Alexander Veraksa, Academician of the Russian Academy of Education, Head of the Department of Educational Psychology and Pedagogy in the Faculty of Psychology at Lomonosov Moscow State University, and Vice President of the Russian Psychological Society.
The research is based on Vygotsky's cultural-historical approach. According to this approach, a child's mental functions are formed through key activities: play, communication, research, and productive work. These activities provide cultural mediation of the psyche and lay the foundation for successful socialization and personal development.
The project places special emphasis on self-regulation—the ability to manage one's attention, memory, emotions, and behavior. Research shows that self-regulation skills are often more important than intelligence for school adaptation. A focus solely on cognitive development is not always justified, as school life requires a much broader range of skills—from listening and following rules to constructive conflict resolution.
"Developing self-regulation in preschool lays the foundation not only for academic success but also for a child's social well-being," stated A.N. Veraksa.
A separate lecture section was devoted to the impact of the digital environment on the development of preschoolers. Project data revealed a consistent negative correlation between screen time and key indicators of child development.
"We see a clear pattern: the more time a child spends in front of a screen, the lower their self-regulation, speech development, motor skills, and emotional intelligence scores. In essence, we are talking about the formation of a behavioral addiction," the speaker warned.
He also made an important clarification: it's not the use of digital devices per se that causes harm, but rather the passive consumption of content without dialogue with an adult. Even educational programs, if watched without discussion or meaningful explanation, do not contribute to either speech development or the development of critical thinking.
Equally significant data were obtained during a study of preschoolers' play preferences. The vast majority of children preferred "trendy" toys with a rigidly defined function—characters from popular cartoons, interactive toys with a single action algorithm. Blocks, construction sets, and other open-ended, multifunctional materials requiring imagination and active meaning-building were chosen significantly less frequently. However, it was precisely the children who spontaneously preferred open-ended materials who demonstrated significantly higher levels of imagination and creativity in diagnostic tests.
In terms of developing self-regulation, the most productive game turned out to be not just any game, but rather a role-playing game with the participation of an adult, who acts not as a conductor, but as a partner and organizer of the play space: helping children adhere to the rules, coordinate actions, and develop the plot without replacing the children's initiative.
The study also shed light on the role of preschool education. Children entering kindergarten with low self-regulation scores successfully catch up with their peers when exposed to a high-quality educational environment throughout the year. The key factor here is the quality of the teacher-child interaction: timely feedback, well-organized activities, and a positive emotional climate within the group. Children in groups with high-quality pedagogical interactions, as the data showed, not only demonstrate better academic results but also are more successful socially—they are more often chosen as playmates and are better at recognizing and understanding the emotions of others.
The lecture concluded with a set of practical recommendations that can be adopted by both kindergartens and families:
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A structured daily routine with clear, consistent rules promotes the development of self-regulation: children from families with a predictable routine demonstrate significantly higher levels of self-control.
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The quality of time spent with a child is more important than quantity: parental busyness alone does not correlate with a child's developmental level, whereas engagement in meaningful shared activities—reading, discussions, creativity, and walks—plays a key role.
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Cultural leisure—visits to theaters, museums, and exhibitions—has a positive impact on the development of self-regulation, regardless of the family's socioeconomic status.
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Musical and sports activities significantly contribute to speech and cognitive development, often outperforming narrowly focused school preparation in the form of rote counting and writing drills.
- Special programs based on dialogue about feelings through discussions of literary works, paintings, cartoons, and real-life situations are effective for developing emotional intelligence.
About the project
The longitudinal project "Rastem Vmeste" is one of the largest and most representative studies in child psychology and pedagogy in the Russian Federation. The project is being implemented under the scientific supervision of leading specialists from the Faculty of Psychology at Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) and the Federal Scientific Center for Psychological and Interdisciplinary Research.
The study involves tens of thousands of children from various regions of the Russian Federation, ensuring the highly representative nature of the data obtained and the possibility of extrapolating it to a national sample.
The "Rastem Vmeste" project team has prepared open resources for specialists and parents:
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video recordings of lectures and webinars;
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methodological materials and diagnostic tools;
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publications of research results in Russian and English.
The research results are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, including the journal "Preschool Education Today" and are also reflected in publications by the project's partner, MOZAIKA-SINTEZ Publishing House.