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Research on the predictivity of activity settings, preschool teachers’ activities, and children’s activities for interaction quality is inconsistent and cannot be transferred easily to specific national preschool contexts. The present study addresses this issue by assessing the interaction quality of 185 children aged 3–5 years attending 61 preschools in Austria using the Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS). Activity settings and activities were captured using a time-sampling method. Having included control variables, regression analyses revealed that scaffolding was positively related to children’s interactions with teachers, free choice was positively related to interactions with peers, and ‘high-yield’ activities were positively related to interactions with peers and task orientation. Teacher-led activities and scaffolding were negatively related to interactions with peers, and ‘low-yield’ activities were negatively related to interactions with peers and task orientation. Effect sizes ranged from small to medium. The findings indicate that opportunities to support children remain untapped.

Introduction. This paper describes results of an integrated multivariate research project, provisionally called “Artifacts of Childhood”, that studied sociological and pedagogical tendencies connected with correlation between the values of the modern adult’s and child’s worlds. The purpose of this study was to look into the specifics of the modern attitude to the childhood, the child’s values-based attitude towards the adult’s world, and to develop an understanding of the value determinants of the child’s social and personal development.

Methods. Research methods were based on Adlerian conceptual model of a deliberate and purposeful changing of parenting styles (A. Adler); the concept of a cultural-historical development (L. S. Vygotsky, A. N. Leontiev) of the child’s personality in the course of mastering the knowledge of previous generations with guidance from an adult (N. F. Radionova); understanding of the child as the subject of child’s activities (T. I. Babayeva, A. G. Gogoberidze and others).

Results. Authors defined essential and structural characteristics of the value‑based attitude of children towards the adult’s world, and established pedagogical determinants that ensure the development of the values-based attitude to the childhood period. Authors received actual data on the interaction between the preschool and the family in the course of shaping the value orientation of adults and modern preschoolers.

Background. Modern society places high demands on the level of language training of children, starting from an early age, which makes it relevant to search for effective methods of speech development and children’s awareness of the phenomena of language and speech. The problem of speech development in the process of speech education at the stage of preschool childhood involves a new consideration of the issues of children’s respect for their native language, which is due to the importance of mastering its national specifics, familiarization with the language as a national treasure. In addition, the development of semantics in speech contributes to the general intellectual development of children, laying the foundation for the subsequent development of more complex language structures and concepts.

Objective. To determine the optimal ways of forming the semantic aspect of speech development in the process of speech education of children in their seventh year of life.

Sample. The study involved 54 children aged 6–7 years (preparatory group for school), attending the preschool department of school No. 1517 in Moscow. The children were divided into two groups: experimental (1EG, 28 children) and control group (2EG, 24 children).

Methods. The diagnostics developed by O.S. Ushakova and V.I. Yashina (Ushakova, Yashina, 2023) were used to assess the level of proficiency in different aspects of speech. The associative experiment was conducted using the methodology developed by researchers at the Speech Development Laboratory of the Research Institute of Preschool Education (Ushakova, Strunina, 2004). The level of logical thinking development was revealed according to the methodology developed by psychologists at the Research Institute of Preschool Education of the Russian Academy of Education under the guidance of L.A. Venger (Diagnostics.., 1978). The level of speech development of older preschoolers was determined by the method of E.A. Smirnova (Smirnova, 1987).

Results. It has been experimentally proven that understanding the meaning of a word is a key moment in speech ontogenesis. To master the meaning of a word means to master the method of reflecting the essential features of an object (phenomenon) for a given society, fixed in the language. The study also shows that if the semantic aspect becomes the center of constructing a coherent statement (description, narration, reasoning), which develops in conjunction with solving all speech tasks in the curriculum, older preschoolers master the ability not only to correctly compose a coherent story, but also to competently construct any utterance. Russian language holidays play a special role in the development of linguistic and communicative abilities of older preschoolers (namely, this role is played by the semantic aspect of children’s speech development), which combine all speech problems and cultivate love and respect for the native language from early childhood.

Conclusions. The use of semantic content in the classroom has an impact on the speech and cognitive development of older preschool children. Without special training in the speech of children, even of the older preschool age, there is an inadequate use of semantic units in speech situations or in the construction of texts of any purpose under the influence of extralinguistic (non-linguistic) factors.