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Background. As AI becomes embedded in children’s lives, from entertainment to learning, the role of content is transforming—from passive consumption to active, system-embedded dialogue.

Methods. This article draws from content development experience at Mako Kids and research-led design at KidsAI. It integrates global studies, co-design fieldwork, and expert interviews to analyze how children interpret AI tools and how design influences developmental outcomes.

Results. Findings show that children anthropomorphize AI agents and that system behavior often teaches unintended lessons. Core principles of quality content—including age-appropriateness, holistic thinking, inclusion, safety, play-based learning, and cultural relevance—remain essential in AI-driven environments. Structured prompts, ethical voice design, and scaffolded interactions are key design features in KidsAI’s work, including the development of Olly, KidsAI’s assistant for kids.

Conclusions. Content must now function as ethical infrastructure in sociotechnical systems. Designers must avoid emotional simulation and focus on supporting autonomy, reflection, and cognitive safety. AI should guide—not mimic—human relationships, with clarity and respect.

The relevance of the subject of the article. Preschool educational organizations are actively implementing various electronic learning tools – laptops, interactive whiteboards, digital laboratories, 3D pens and much more. The use of these tools to enrich the educational activity of the child and increase the diversity of his independent activity is an important task of modern preschool education. The research of the attitude of teachers to the use of technical devices in working with children is an urgent problem, the study of which will reveal the features of the use of electronic learning tools by educators.

The aim of the study: to identify the attitude of educators to the use of electronic learning tools in the educational activities of preschoolers.

Methodology: individual structured interview.

Description of the research progress. The sample consisted of 50 teachers of preschool educational organizations in Ivanovo. Teachers were asked to answer a number of questions on the use of electronic devices in their professional activities. The statements showing the respondent’s attitude to the use of technology in working with children, the opportunities for the development of the child that the teacher sees in the use of modern technology, the problems and difficulties encountered in the process of using electronic devices were carefully studied.

Research results. Educators actively use technical devices in working with children. Most often, technical devices are used by teachers to increase the visibility of classes, as well as a surprise moment to attract the attention of children. Most of the interviewed educators would not like to use technical devices in every exercise. They explain this by the fact that it is more important for a preschooler to gain experience of live communication, subject activity and independent work with various materials. Among the main problems of teachers in working with technical devices, one can single out the unavailability or malfunction of electronic means, as well as the lack of consumables and the difficulty of mastering computer programs.

Conclusion. The main problem in the attitude of teachers to modern technical devices is the contradiction between the wide opportunities for conducting classes that technology gives to the educator, and the possible harm to the health and development of the child. Teachers regard electronic learning tools as a resource for additional audiovisual support of classes and do not see the potential of technical devices to enrich children’s independent activities in the classroom and in the play. Using technical devices in working with children, teachers proceed from the leading position of an adult and define the lesson as the leading organizational form of work with preschoolers.

Relevance (context) of the subject of the article. The socio-cultural environment plays an important role in shaping the personality of boys and girls. In communication and interaction with significant adults, moral values and attitudes are developed, and such properties of personality as initiative, activity, independence, responsibility, which form the basis of the child’s subjectivity, are formed.

The aim of the study. On the example of studying initiative in the younger preschool, senior preschool and younger school ages to reveal the specific features of its manifestation among boys and girls in the situation of interaction with parents and teachers.

Description of the research progress. Initiative was investigated by obtaining a scale assessment from parents of preschool and primary school age children, and educational specialists working with these children. The evaluation criteria were such indicators of initiative as emotional, communicative, creative, and cognitive. The experiment involved 165 parents of preschool and primary school-age children and 88 educational specialists.

Research results. Based on the results of processing the data of parental and pedagogical answers, groups according to the degree of initiative in the preschool, senior preschool and junior school ages were identified: “low initiative”, “medium initiative”, “high initiative” and the psychological characteristics of the behavior of children with different degrees of its expression were presented. A gradual decrease in the indicators of initiative from preschool to junior school age was revealed. Differences in displays of initiative by boys and girls of the senior preschool and younger school age under learning conditions were revealed. The results of the study allow the conclusion that boys in the classes at pre-school educational institutions and at school require emotional support of their own actions, assistance in implementing the initiatives in the area of their manifestation, directing the initiative to comprehension of the tasks set by the adult and achievement of results to a greater extent than the girls.

Relevance (context) of the topic of the article. Speech development is a key factor in the academic success of students. Reading and writing as types of speech activity are metalinguistic competencies that provide students of all levels of education with the assimilation of the content of academic disciplines, communication and influencing further socialization. Therefore, the issues of timely mass diagnostics of speech development disorders in modern children are becoming more relevant. The article examines the domestic and world experience in the diagnosis of speech disorders, including the use of screenings for assessing the risks of speech and psychological development; the changes in the system of dispensary speech therapy observation of children that have occurred in Russia over the past 10 years are analyzed, models of psychological and pedagogical support of children with speech disorders are described.

The aim of the article is to describe a model of a standardized two-stage speech screening procedure; to present the content of the first stage, the algorithm for its implementation and the analysis of the results of the primary approbation of the questionnaire for assessing speech development in 7-year-old children.

Description of the research progress. The study was conducted in 15 educational organizations in Moscow in 2020-2021. Based on modern ideas about the child’s speech development, a questionnaire was developed to assess speech development and tested in preschool groups with 686 children aged 7 years-7 years and 3 months. The main research methods are observation, questionnaire, methods of mathematical statistics.

The results of the study. A questionnaire for assessing the speech development of a 7-year-old child is presented, which allows identifying students who need logoscreening (stage 2) and differentiated help from a speech therapist teacher. Statistical data on speech disorders in this age group were obtained.

Conclusion. It is concluded that it is important to conduct two-stage speech screening in critical periods of development, and an algorithm for its testing is proposed. The advantages of the screening system for the selection of children in need of psychological and pedagogical support for the executive authorities in the field of education, educational organizations and the child are indicated. 

This paper reports on a case study which explores the co-creation of a zone of proximal development (ZPD) in a mathematics teaching-learning activity in a Norwegian kindergarten. To capture the complexity of teaching and learning mathematics in kindergarten the study uses qualitative methods within an interpretative paradigm. The findings illustrate how a five-year-old girl and a kindergarten teacher co-create a ZPD by expanding each other’s action possibilities, and how the co-creation is fundamentally based on mutual trust and responsibility. The results give insights into how mathematical learning possibilities may be promoted in kindergarten. The study illustrates the importance of being receptive to children’s contributions and, above all, to trust children’s abilities to take responsibility for moving mathematical teaching-learning activities forward.

In this paper the author explores how our ideas about early learning have developed over time and proposes a new view of pedagogy, that is not based on the traditional Model of Deprivation, but outlines a new model which goes beyond deprivation. The new model proposes that the child is not deprived of culture, rather the child is deprived of opportunities for creating culture and dealing with culture. In this new perspective the child is not viewed as passive but active. The aim of schools should be to provide an “enabling culture” in which the child is involved in reinventing, refurbishing and refreshing the culture. The paper also identifies and explores

3 antinomies which have emerged as ideas about early learning developed;

• the ‘individual realisation’ versus the ‘culture serving’ antinomy

• the ‘talent centred’ versus the ‘tool centred’ antinomy

• the ‘particularism‘ versus the ‘universalism’ antinomy.

It is argued that an exploration of these 3 antinomies can provide a useful basis for thinking about what we have learned about early learning and where we are moving in current development.

The conclusion of this paper is that children from the start must be accepted as members and as participants in the culture and be given the opportunity to make and remake the culture in each generation. The case is made that we should stop thinking about deprivation of children and start thinking about participation of children.

Introduction. This paper deals with the phenomenon of musical aptitude in senior preschool children, and new ways of its detection. The purpose of this work is to offer techniques for early detection of this personal quality in the course of art activities.

Methods. Research methods were bases on ideas of identifying the child as gifted (J. Renzulli, A. Gesser, K. Heller, F. Monks, K. Eriksson, A. I. Savenkov, D.B. Bogoyavlenskaya, V. D. Shadrikov, A.А. Nikitin, M. Storfer, E.I. Shcheblanova and others), the concept of the “Art-composition” educational technology as a resource for art education (L.Y. Kalinina), research data on aspects of art activities by senior preschool students of the “Creativity” non-school education center in Samara.

Structure of the Study. A hypothesis based on the obtained data predicts that it is possible to identify a talent in the course of art activities in the early stages. An approach to the testing of the hypothesis was developed, the key role in which has the “Art-composition” educational technology: a conclusion about the presence of a talent can be drawn from the results of the child’s creative performance, and the evaluation of the products of their activity using special criteria.

Results. The study describes experience of encouraging creativity in senior preschool children in classes with elements of art-composition. To improve the arsenal of means for early identifying of talent we offered diagnostic tools that are applicable in a natural learning environment. General activities of a teacher aimed at revealing musical aptitude in senior preschool children in the course of teaching art-composition were described.

Conclusions. Authors present an easy-to-use methodology that makes it possible to “indicate” the presence of musical aptitude in senior preschool children based on generalization of the theory and work experiences.

Introduction. The paper examines the necessity of public urban playgrounds for children. Psychological and pedagogical studies reveal that the quantity and quality of outdoor play areas do not cover the needs of children. The authors monitored playgrounds in different areas of Moscow, Russia in order to explore the actual situation in the urban space from the perspective of well balanced development and spontaneous outdoor learning of children of different ages. They looked into how existing public playgrounds covered the needs of children, and if the outdoor learning was possible.

Methods. The study had two stages. The data was collected by structured non-participant observation with interview elements in which 24 public playgrounds in Moscow were involved, 417 adults were interviewed. The authors carried out an analysis of the equipment of playgrounds, and children activities to determine whether and how far playgrounds were used for communication in mixed age groups.

Analysis and Results. The authors analyzed characteristics of playgrounds, including: location, observation time, age and number of visitors, equipment and its arrangement, presented play areas and infrastructure, surface materials, individual and group activities of children and adults. The observation discovered that children of three different ages (early, preschool and school age) were using public playgrounds at the same time. The vast majority of the playgrounds near apartment blocks (76.9%) and almost a half of the playgrounds in parks (45.5%) had separated play areas for children of different ages, which largely meets the needs of parents. The qualitative analysis revealed that the equipment of the park playgrounds was more diverse, while almost a half of the playgrounds near apartment blocks (53.8%) showed one and the same type of equipment. The authors emphasize that, both playgrounds near apartment blocks and playgrounds in parks, were more focused on active exercises; most components of the equipment were of the same type and had closed character. The authors discovered lack of equipment for experimenting. The infrastructure of the playgrounds of both types showed that the playgrounds were considered as a space for children only, the interests and needs of adults coming with children were not taken into account.

Conclusion. The study indicates the need to create additional conditions for supporting and developing of children’s game, and increasing educational capacity of playgrounds. Among the measures proposed by the authors is increasing the educational capacity of playgrounds, and creating a citywide digital resource with a map and description of psychological and pedagogical characteristics of outdoor areas for children. An important role is given to educational work with families, that will increase the parental competence and responsibility in the field of educational structuring and outdoor learning.

Introduction. The article presents results of a theoretical research in the field of quality control of learning environment of early childhood groups. The purpose of the study is to develop a theory based methodology for quality control of learning environment by employing modern trends in early childhood pedagogy.

Directions and methods of research. The research methods are based on activity and competence approach, the idea of the learning environment as a medium for successful socialization of toddlers, structural components of the learning environment, where the key parameters are: nature of adult - child interaction, content and modes of the interaction, focused on successful mastery of kindergarten programs, designing of stimulating environment for early childhood groups. Theoretical analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature on the subject, design of structural components of learning environment of early childhood groups, determination of the expert indicators for each component of learning environment were used as research methods.

Results. Result of the research was presented in the form of control methods description, that include evaluation of the quality of learning environment, measurement of the quality indicators for each component of the learning environment (the nature of adult interaction with the child, the content and modes of interaction, aimed at the successful mastery of the kindergarten program, design of stimulating environment for early childhood groups). Detailed recommendations to the content of each indicator are given.

Conclusion. The developed control methodology makes it possible to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the quality of learning environment for early childhood groups in accordance with the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard, and to help an expert to determine ways of further quality improvement of the learning environment.

Introduction. The paper introduces the idea of a pedagogical project, that is going to be tested in several preschools in St. Petersburg, Russia. The significance of the project is determined by the importance of social and cultural design as one of the key methods for providing fair and positive environment for child development during the preschool period.

Methods. Methodologically the research is based on: academic, and subject approach; concept of development of a preschool child as a subject of children’s activities and behavior (T. I. Babayeva, A. G. Gogoberidze and othes); the concept of cultural and historical development of a child personality by mastery of experiences of previous generations (L.S. Vygotsky, A.N. Leontiev), provided that they interact with adults (N. F. Radionova); research data on individual behavior and activity of senior preschoolers in of St. Petersburg, obtained at the turn of the 2010s. System analysis was applied, including theoretical analysis of philosophical, psychological and pedagogical literature on the research subject, developing method of learning materials “St. Petersburg - the Territory of Childhood”, ensuring the subjective engagement the senior preschool children with design of social and cultural learning environment for their development.

Results. The results of the research contain an analysis of organizing of educational potential of the social and cultural environment in St. Petersburg for development of preschool students. Development and testing of methodological tools for studying values, interests, culture and subculture, subjective manifestations of children, methods for identifying motivation for development, assessing the potential for personal development. Approaches to design of additional cultural and artistic programs, programs for design of environment of a modern kindergarten have been determined. The characteristics of the key implementation tools of the Project, institutionally represented by the educational and methodical complex “St. Petersburg - the Territory of Childhood”, which has a culturally oriented development, is presented.

Conclusion. The study first attempted to identify the conditions under which a senior preschooler can become a designer of social and cultural learning environment for their development. The data can be used by Childhood experts to create a modern space for children culture, subculture, activities that form a unique “world of childhood” that determines a unique development of the child individual cultural experiences.