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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.

Introduction. The article is devoted to the problem of assessing the process and the result of understanding a child by a preschool teacher.

The purpose of the study is to develop and initial approbation an algorithm for self-analysis and expert assessment of the teacher’s understanding of a child as a practical tool for overcoming difficulties in interacting with the child and planning educational activities with him.

The methodological basis of the study was the system-activity and competence-based approaches to the consideration of the teacher’s activity for the knowledge of a preschooler, qualitative (ideographic) and subjective approaches to psycho-diagnostics.

As a result of the research, a step-by-step algorithm for analyzing the teacher’s understanding of the child has been developed. At the first stage, the teacher answers questions compiled in the form of a non-standardized self-report for reflecting the shape of a preschooler in educational activities. The sequence of questions is built in the following logic: identifying the child’s characteristics as perceived by the teacher, comparing them with each other, and then correlating them with the specifics of educational activity with the child, setting tasks for his further understanding in professional and pedagogical activity.

At the second stage, the expert evaluates the teacher’s answers, identifying difficulties in understanding the child and determining the directions for improving his professional training or methodological support. The teacher analyzes the answers in the aspects of, firstly, the manifestation of the social perception and the operational-technical component of gnostic competencies; secondly, their compliance with the criteria and indicators in the content of the information received about the child. At the third stage, the expert together with the teachers discuss and analyze their answers to clarify the shape of the child, make changes in the planning of educational activities and determine the directions for further development of gnostic competencies of teachers.

Conclusions. The three-stage algorithm of reflection and analysis of the child’s shape is developed.

This article is devoted to assistance to parents in the moral upbringing of children of sociopaths, i.e. those who violate socially accepted norms of behavior. Many parents are afraid that their children will not be able to become socialized. The publication discusses ways of interacting with such children. A certain model of conscience is used, which includes a number of components.

These include: moral understanding, motivation management, inner voice, empathy and compassion. The process of forming these four components of a healthy conscience is described. The need for subtle and delicate interaction based on the ability to see the hidden motives of children’s behavior, which allows us to count on a positive forecast of their moral development, is shown.

The subject-being approach allows us to speak about the child in the changing world, noting both how the environment impacts personality development and the effect of the child himself on the outside world. The most convenient descriptive design that meets this requirement is psychological boundaries (or the boundaries of “I”). The aim of the study is to describe the development of the phenomenon of children’s boundaries of “I” from the ages of 2 to 7 years old. The longitudinal study was conducted from 2012 to 2017 with the use of qualitative methods: participant observation, simulation (the construction of the house), and case study. The study involved a group of children (14), the composition of which has not changed throughout this period. The dynamic of psychological boundaries is discovered: from physical barriers around their bodies to the labeling of the territory, first physically (pictures, toys, things) to verbally. The research shows that relationships between close people take place at a short distance and the use of destructive methods of protection, and relationships with strangers are characterized by a stronger distancing and constructive ways to protect and control the boundaries of “I”. The psychological boundaries appear as a multifaceted phenomenon which has temporal and spatial length, for alternately finding the “inside” and “outside” of society.

The phenomenon of imaginary companions (ICs) has received little attention in developmental psychology, even though it can be observed in approximately 25% of preschool-aged children. Only a few studies have investigated the effect of ICs on children’s theory of mind and emotion understanding, and the results are partial or inconsistent. This study used comprehensive measures to assess emotional understanding and theory of mind in children aged four to six with ICs (N = 24) and compared their performance to that of children without ICs (N = 24). Results showed that children with ICs, regardless of age and gender, have a better theory of mind and emotion understanding than children without ICs. The greatest impact of ICs was on girls’ emotion understanding. The results are discussed in relation to gender differences.

The paper presents the results of research devoted to mental representations functioning in preschool age. The results of studies of the formation of the metacognitive knowledge and understanding of emotions show the need to create conditions for the development of child mental representations. The experience of designing and creating educational situations, aimed at developing children’s ideas about the cognitive and emotional processes is described. Most important aspects of the content of the work and the methods of its implementation are highlighted. It is shown that in the work on the formation of children’s mental representations in verbal techniques can be used. The advantages of active learning methods (games and experiments) are shown. Evidence of the effectiveness of the work, indicating the possibility of formation of children’s mental representations are described.