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Background. Today’s common typologies and categories of children’s toys are mainly decided by the manufacturers and retailers of children’s products. Such categorizations are not based on a theoretical understanding of child development and therefore cannot provide information about the opportunities that toys provide for the young.

Objective. This study proposed three criteria for categorizing toys based on the cultural-historical approach: their degree of realism; their degree of anthropomorphism; and their degree of detail. These criteria were chosen as a result of an analysis of theoretical works carried out in the framework of cultural-historical approach.

Design. The proposed criteria were tested through an experiment measuring children’s toy preferences. The participants were 129 children of ages 3-4 years. Experimental data confirmed that most children do prefer realistic and detailed toys rather than those with fewer of these properties. The contribution of socio-demographic factors and the children’s individual developmental indicators to their toy preference was also analyzed.

Results. The study revealed that among various socio-demographic factors, only the child’s gender and the number of siblings in the family acted as significant predictors for the toy preferences. None of child’s developmental characteristics (non-verbal intelligence, executive functions, and emotional understanding) were found to be significant predictors of preference for particular toys.

Conclusions. The assumption that toys can be assessed in terms of their realism and degree of detail found empirical support. The results of this study may be useful in designing further research and in the practical issue of toy selection for children age 3-4 years.

Justification of the study. The relevance of the study is justified by the sensitivity of children 5-6 years old to develop an understanding of emotions. Therefore, many programs have been developed for the formation of voluntary control emotions based on the understanding of emotions. However, such programs use multidirectional means of developing an understanding of emotions. This suggests the incompleteness of using the potential of the child's understanding of emotions for the formation of voluntary control emotions in these programs.

The aim of the study. The aim is a theoretical analysis of programs that develop a child's understanding of emotions.

Methods. The method was a comparative analysis. The subject of the analysis was the objectives and content of the programs. The analysis of the objectives was carried out with respect to their functions for the formation of voluntary control emotions. The analysis of the content was carried out from the perspective of the development of the motivational component and from the perspective of the development of voluntary behavior.

Sample. Emotion understanding training programs were selected for the study. These programs are presented in peer-reviewed publications or comply with the Federal State Educational Standard. In total, 12 programs were analyzed of which 6 were partial and 6 were complex.

Results. The objectives, means, and motivational components of the analyzed programs reflect the value orientations of the program. There are value orientations aimed at developing the child's understanding of his own emotions or at developing an understanding of the emotions of others. Both presented value orientations are necessary for the formation of voluntary control emotions. The topic of understanding emotions has a wide potential for the formation of a child’s desire for voluntary control emotions through the development of non-situational personal communication. The main tools of mastering voluntary control emotions are behavioral strategies and rules of behavior.  Behavioral strategies as a means of the formation of voluntary emotion control are characterized by utilitarianism. The rules of behavior are characterized by a focus on awareness of the holistic situation. Recommendations for the formation of voluntary control emotions by developing an understanding of emotions were presented.

The relevance of the article. The problem of ‘Paying It Forward’, or the notion that people, children and young persons, carry out acts of kindness to strangers without expecting a return or ‘being paid’ back, is so important that, without exaggeration, the future of mankind depends on it. The term “Paying it Forward“ is tentatively described as ‘the process of somebody doing something good for another without having the intention to have the favour returned or being “paid back”, but instead with the expectation that the recipients pass it on to another person’. The author tries to find answers to the question: why is it that many people who live now feel attached to, worry about, and may even consider themselves responsible for the lives of those who will come to this world several generations later?

Description of the research progress. The article attempts to investigate the phenomenon of ‘living in the now’ and how this affects this ‘paying it forward’, as it can be assumed that their concern about the wellbeing of those who may live in the future may be affected by a limited feeling of being connected with times to come and are more concerned about responding to their needs in the hic et nunc. The trend that pushes children towards living more and more in the present is fueled by numerous processes, the most significant of which is the reduction in the amount of time children devote to leisure and hobbies and the expectation of almost immediate satisfaction of their needs. The author examines the gap between the past, present and future and how this affects the attitude of young men and women to improve the lives of future generations.

Conclusions. The urge to feel connected to or la sense of longing for what went before serves many purposes; it provides identity, pride, certainty, meaning and even repose, recuperation, and healing. It is also for these reasons that rescuing cultural heritage a high priority after conflicts or natural disasters. This raises the question: how well prepared are the younger generation to participate in activities that will benefit those who come after them?

The relevance of the article. The problem of ‘Paying It Forward’, or the notion that people, children and young persons, carry out acts of kindness to strangers without expecting a return or ‘being paid’ back, is so important that, without exaggeration, the future of mankind depends on it. ‘Pay it Forward’ is not a new way of behaving; as else, people would have ceased to exist a long time ago. The term “Paying it Forward“ is tentatively described as ‘the process of somebody doing something good for another without having the intention to have the favour returned or being “paid back”, but instead with the expectation that the recipients pass it on to another person’.

Description of the research progress. After a brief elaboration on the notion of ‘paying it back’, the first part seeks to explore the phenomenon of ‘living in the now’ and how this affects this ‘paying it forward’, as it can be assumed that their concern about the wellbeing of those who may live in the future may be affected by a limited feeling of being connected with times to come. The trend that pushes children to increasingly living in the now is fed by numerous processes, the most important being that spending time at their leisure is becoming rarer, and the other that they expect near immediate responses to their needs.

Conclusions. If people get tired of communicating with the present, they have no energy left for the future. Will children and young people to think about the wellbeing and well becoming of prospective generations? Where and how could they possibly muster the motivation, energy, and above all the time, to ‘pay it forward’? What future lies in waiting for the young generations and for those who come after them? This question gives rise to daunting scenarios, whose consequences could only be approximated, if at all. An effort to this effect will be attempted in the future studies.

The article is devoted to the practical aspect of the development of self-regulation of preschoolers in the play. The introduction provides a definition of self-regulation as a multidimensional construct that includes the regulation of emotions, cognitive processes and behavior. The definition of executive functions based on A. Miyake’s model is also proposed. The literature review covers the results of new studies on the influence of play on the development of self-regulation in preschoolers. The article considers studies showing the effectiveness of role play, play with rules, digital games, as well as the relationship between play preferences at home and the development of self-regulation in preschool children. In the final part, practical recommendations are formulated for the use of games in order to develop self-regulation of preschoolers. Recommendations are given for choosing games that are most suitable for this purpose, their duration, increasing children’s involvement in play, and the nuances of organizing play. The conditions for creating different types of play (play with rules, role play, digital games) are described in detail. The Appendix contains names and brief descriptions of digital and board games that can be used to train all components of executive functions.

Methodology. The development of self-regulation in preschoolers is determined by the features of a cultural situation, which consists of a set of invariable normative rules. To abide by the cultural rules means that a child develops his/her “cultural congruence” (Bayanova). This process reflects the child’s evolution as an agent of a culture. The cognitive aspect of self-regulation was studied in the framework of the model of “executive functions” (Miyake). This model includes three related and simultaneously independent factors, such as Working Memory, Flexibility and Inhibitory Control.

The aim of the research is to explore how the assimilation of cultural rules of a “normative situation” (Veraksa) may influence the development of executive functions in preschoolers of different genders.

Method and structure of the research. 113 children aged 5-6 (58 boys and 55 girls) and 113 mothers (aged 24-44) took part in the research. All of the children attended kindergartens of Tatarstan. The assessment of cultural congruence was carried out using a questionnaire for parents, which included invariable rules for children 5-6 years old and allowed for assessing the extent to which children follow these rules. Diagnostics of executive functions was implemented with a set of techniques, which included the subtests of the test battery NEPSY-II (Korkman et al., 2007) and the DCCS (Zelazo, 2006).

Results. It was revealed that boys with a “higher” level of cultural congruence better develop verbal memory, whereas boys with a “low” level of congruence better switch from one task to another and better memorize visual images. The features of the development of executive functions in the group of girls on the whole do not depend on the level of their cultural congruence,

Conclusions. The data obtained indicate the gender specificity of the influence of cultural congruence on executive functions in preschoolers, which substantially clarifies the results obtained in other studies.

Background. In recent years, preschoolers have increasingly become using digital devices, which undoubtedly has an impact on their development, including the development of executive functions. Direct involvement of parents in children’s digital activities can have both positive and negative effects on preschoolers’ executive functions development, as well as on the parental burnout.

Objectives. To investigate the relationship between children’s use of digital devices and their level of executive functions, considering the level of parental burnout and parental involvement in their children’s digital use.

Sample. The study involved 115 children (61.7% boys, 38.3% girls) aged 5–6 years (M = 5.8 years; SD = 3.628). They were all attending preparatory groups in kindergartens in Moscow. Their parents also participated in the study.

Methods. To diagnose the development of executive functions (working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility), the NEPSY-II battery (subtests “Sentences Repetition”; “Memory for Designs”; “Inhibition” and “Statue”) (Korkman et al., 2007) and the “Dimensional Change Card Sort” (Zelazo, 2006) technique were used. To study the use of digital devices among preschoolers, we developed a questionnaire for parents that asked about frequency of use and rules regarding digital device use. The Parental Burnout Assessment (Roskam et al., 2018, adapted by Egorova & Starchenkova, 2019) was used to assess parental burnout.

Results. Children who have rules in their family about limiting the time they use digital devices have better visual working memory. Parental burnout does not contribute to any of the links between sharing digital devices with adults and executive functions, or between screen time and executive functions.

Conclusions. It has been shown rules regarding practice of digital device usage correspond to higher level of executive functions of children.