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Background. Storytelling skills are essential for people in general and for analyzing the formation of child speech in particular. Oration, coherent speech, monologue, narrative, storytelling are all special names for the ability to generate oral texts, which precedes the written skills both in phylogenesis and in ontogenesis. Without analyzing the dynamics of storytelling, it is difficult to analyze the course of linguistic development in children, specifically in bilinguals.

The purpose of the study is to show on specific examples of mini-longitudinal research how the ability to create a narrative in Russian develops among bilingual preschoolers aged 5–7 years, whether this process has features that distinguish it from a similar process in monolingual children; to summarize the experience of narration training methods used abroad and to offer important didactic techniques for teaching how to create a coherent story.

Design. The features of monologue speech, methods of eliciting and evaluating narratives, their significance in pedagogy, linguistics, and psychology are highlighted. In the experimental part, Russian language stories of two bilingual Russian-Finnish bilinguals collected between the ages of five and seven years with an average time interval of six months are compared. Methods of teaching storytelling offered by foreign teachers are analyzed.

Results. It is demonstrated that the reference material is created for specific research purposes and can reflect more or less accurately the search for a solution to a certain linguistic, psychological, cultural, etc. problem. Adults do not expect logic from a small child but try to extract from what they hear the scheme of ideas that she/he has formed about the relationship of events in reality (if she / he says so, then she/he thinks so). The criteria for evaluating narratives are considered. As a result, it is reported that it is difficult to evaluate stories as an indicator of the verbal ability development. The techniques of storytelling supporting the development of coherent speech, and the dynamics of narrative ability are discussed. The article systematizes teaching methods of storytelling and suggests ways to support the development of the verbal ability.

Conclusion. At the end, it is concluded that in order to be able to tell stories, children need to be at a sufficient level of cognitive development, find relationships between the elements of a fragment of reality, know how the environment is arranged (they must have, to some extent, an established picture of the world), be equipped with sufficient phonetic, lexical and grammatical means, possess a suitable narrative genre and its components, select the right type of narration for the listener.

Relevance. Currently, in most preschool groups there is a minimum level of quality conditions for supporting play. The task is to improve the quality of play support. The article examines the developing potential of regular practice of storytelling as a part of indirect play support in preschool setting.

The aim of the study: to analyze the influence of regular storytelling experience on the development of pretend play.

Methods. 38 children aged 6-7 years from two preschool groups took part in a pedagogical experiment (duration – 7 months). For the initial and repeated assessment of the level of play development we used E.O. Smirnova’s diagnostic tool and the “challenge-response” parameter (L.I. Elkoninova); to assess the level of imagination development – the tool “Where is whose place?” (E.E. Kravtsova). In the experimental group, conditions were created for regular practice of storytelling based on children’s drawings. The results of the pedagogical experiment were assessed by the presence of a shift in the level of development of play and imagination in the experimental and control groups before and after the pedagogical experiment.

Results. Based on the analysis of more than 600 children’s stories, 3 types of children’s stories were identified and 5 trajectories of development of children’s storytelling were described. During the experiment, children moved from a description and sequence of actions to more complex structure with culmination. Statistical analysis revealed significant differences in the level of development of play and imagination before and after the pedagogical experiment (p<0.01) only in the experimental group.

Conclusions. Regular storytelling is a significant condition for the development of the cognitive aspect of the play associated with substitution, symbolic actions of the child, plot features, as well as the affective side of play associated with the creation of a situation of challenge and response. Storytelling can be seen not as the only necessary condition for the development of play, but as an additional condition (part of indirect support) that expands the capabilities of children playing. The results can be used in developing a strategy for complex play support in preschool organizations.

Background. Storytelling and play with an imaginary situation are important components of a high-quality preschool education, but in the scientific field there are very few studies that analyze the nature of their relationship in preschool age.

Objective: to analyze the interrelation between pretend play of preschoolers and the key features of individual storytelling.

Methods. The study involved 56 children aged 6-7 years. To study the features of the development of play in preschoolers, we used the play diagnostic tool of E.O. Smirnova and the “challenge-response” parameter of L.I. Elkoninova. To study the characteristics of children’s narratives (stories invented based on their own drawings) – the method by O.A. Shiyan «Three Stories».

Results. The sample included children with both high and low levels of development of pretend play (mean= 19.55, sd= 5.34, min=6, max=30), 26.7% of children were found to have “challenge-response” play. Most often, when creating narratives, children used normative (mean=3.86, sd=2.21) and symbolic means (mean=1.48, sd=1.9). A significant interrelation was found between the level of development of play and symbolic and normative means in children’s narratives (p<0.01).

Conclusion. Overall score according to the method of E.O. Smirnova, as well as such parameters of play as play substitution and play idea, turned out to be associated with both symbolic and normative means in children’s narratives. The ability to create a symbolic character in storytelling and action from a role in play, spatial and subject substitution have a similar mechanism and imply the ability not only to create, but to deploy and maintain one’s image. The interrelation indicates a similarity in the use of normative means when constructing play plots and creating individual stories. The results can be used in developing a strategy for complex play support in preschool organizations, as well as in professional development programs for preschool teachers.

Background. The development of creative thinking is one of the important tasks of early childhood education. It is important to understand the role children’s activities, particularly story-telling, can play in this development. Of particular interest are narrative practices that create a social situation that supports children’s writing.

Objective: to analyze the influence of the narrative practice of “fairy tales with provocations” on the development of creative (dialectical) thinking of older preschoolers and individual parameters of fairy tale stories that children create.

Methods. The study involved 60 children aged 6-7 years. To diagnose creative (dialectical) thinking, the “What can happen at the same time?” (Veraksa N.E.) technique was used; to diagnose creative thinking and the ability to create symbolic images, the “Fire” subtest was used (the “Three Stories” method by Shiyan O.A.). We proposed the narrative practice “Fairy Tales with Provocations” as a way to activate children’s creative thinking.

Results. According to the results of the initial diagnostics, no significant differences were found; the results of the children in the experimental and control groups did not have any of the study parameters. The final diagnostics showed that in the control group no significant positive changes were found compared to the initial diagnosis in any of the studied parameters, while in the experimental group significant positive changes were found at a significant level in everyone according to all measurable parameters: creative (dialectical) thinking, creative transformations and artistic (symbolic) image in narratives, as well as the structure of narratives.

Conclusion. The study showed that the narrative practice “Fairy Tales with Provocations” is an adequate way to develop creative (dialectical) thinking, and also has a positive effect on the stories that children create: they become more complex and structured, they contain more creative transformations and artistic (symbolic) images. All this suggests that such symbolic activities as writing fairy tales are an important space for the development of children’s creativity. The results can be used to build educational work with children based on the resource of children’s activities.