Background. Play and storytelling, despite their unique developmental significance, rarely occur spontaneously in preschool settings. While various theoretical perspectives exist regarding the relationship between these two activities in early childhood, the developmental dynamics of play and storytelling, as well as the nature of their interconnection, remain empirically underexplored.
Objectives. To analyze the dynamic of development of both play and storytelling in preschool-aged children and establish the nature of their interrelation.
Sample. 44 preschoolers (5–7 y.o.) (mean age in months=74,18, Med=73, Sd=9,52).
Methods. To assess the dynamic of storytelling over 7 months, teachers in each group collected children’s stories that the children drew and composed voluntarily. The assessment of play level dynamics was conducted twice using E.O. Smirnova’s method, with a 7-month interval.
Results. Uneven dynamics in the development of storytelling were revealed, significant negative correlations were found between the delta of the total play score, interaction level, play idea with the dynamics of storytelling (quantity and level of story composition). The sample contained no children who composed many stories while having low play levels, while there were many children with good play skills who did not compose stories.
Conclusions. Play and storytelling are different types of symbolic activity of the child, which develop not parallel to each other, but sequentially. Based on the obtained results, it can be assumed that children first master cultural means of creating plots and characters in joint play, and only then begin to use them in stories. For the development of story composition, the rich experience of joint play in the child is necessary.