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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.

The relevance of the topic of the article. Puppet theater is a cultural practice, the use of which in purposeful and systemic educational activity becomes an additional resource. The article examines the connection between the existence of a puppet in a modern puppet theater and the developing possibilities of this type of art for the viewer - a child and an adult.

The aim of the study: to study the possibilities of modern puppet theater as a space for understanding children’s play.

Research methods: theoretical and phenomenological analysis.

Description of the research progress. The study analyzes of the features of cultural-historical development and dependence on the social situation with the invariability of psychological laws of preschool age; the openness of a modern child to the emotional experience of the new, but with a different effect of previous stimuli; the insufficiency of the “miracle of revival” for the emergence of a natural experience in the puppet theater due to the richness of experience of visual transformations and animation of digital content. The analysis of the typology of theatrical puppets and the features of their use in modern theater: tablet puppets as the main type; active use and transformation of the subject environment; increasing the role of a “live” actor. In a modern puppet theater performance, the artist is visible and does not hide that he/she controls the puppet; the doll is small and controlled by the artist, who holds it with his hands or sets it aside so that it remains motionless while he/she performs another action; surrounding objects are involved in the game, which become characters, which makes it possible to talk about an analogy with the actions of a child playing, and about the doll as a child’s toy.

Research results. The study shows phenomenon of the similarity of the puppeteer’s position as a child playing a “director’s game” with a doll, and the features of the game direction accompanying the action, when the child directs what is happening, all the time being inside the process and creates an action along the way, experiencing the “resistance of the material”. The puppet theater is analyzed as a means of teaching adults who come as spectators and children to play, if after visiting the theater, adults implement what they see in playing with children; as an effective aid in overcoming cognitive centralization.

Conclusion. The experience of a modern puppet theater can take the director’s play of a child to a qualitatively new level, taking into account the properties of the “subject doll” and contributing to the regulation of behavior, understanding others with changing properties, which must be guided by for the implementation of the idea, the ability to abandon the most interesting and productive scenario, the ability to quickly respond to emerging obstacles and skills abandon the most interesting and productive scenario. The doll sets its own rules for handling it, which leads to the unity of the accommodative and assimilative orientation of the intellect, when the development of a child is considered in the process of separation from visibility, rigid attachment to the surrounding reality, in going out in consciousness beyond the limits of the close time and beyond the visible.

Relevance. The toy is a carrier of strong emotionally loaded images. Historically, it acts as an intergenerational translator of culture and is one of the most important factors in the socialization of a child. At the same time, the modern toy market is not regulated in any way in terms of emotional and figurative content. This makes it necessary to analyze the emotional and imaginative qualities of game products for children from the perspective of its developmental function.

Progress of the study. The aim of the study is to identify the emotional content of toys recommended by manufacturers and sellers for preschool children. A sample of 150 photos of toys for preschool children taken in children’s goods stores, on manufacturers’ websites and the most popular marketplaces was carried out. To process the data, the “Image Expert” program was used, which includes a battery of measured image parameters that take into account the modalities of human perception in their expression through specific emotions.

Research results. A quantitative analysis of the range of gaming products included in the research complex, offered for preschool children by manufacturers, stores, and electronic trading platforms, showed that intellectual and constructive toys predominate in the total volume. The analysis set also included soft and interactive toys, professional and household play sets, dolls, robots, and children’s weapons. The analysis of the emotional content of the toys showed a low intensity, inexpressiveness of the toys despite the bright colors and bizarre shape. The perceptual properties of toys are contradictory, which reduces their overall emotional content and gives the toys a deceptive, insincere character. In general, toys offered for preschooler’s appeal more to the child’s mind rather than to the emotions, and also implicitly convey information about the insincerity and unreliability of the world around them.

Conclusions. Emotional well-being determines the full-fledged development of a child, one of the means of ensuring which is a child’s toy as a special socio-cultural and psychological phenomenon. Therefore, a conscious and responsible choice of toys by adults should become a sustainable element of a child’s healthy lifestyle. The data obtained make it possible to outline a scientific perspective and determine the subject of further research, and will also be informative for parents and teachers of educational institutions in order to form their sense of responsibility when choosing toys for preschool children.