We develop figurative thinking of preschool children through role-playing games

The imaginative thinking of children of early and preschool age develops gradually. By the beginning of the fourth year of life, the children begin to appear the need to play different roles in games. Ability to carry symbolically the image of the seller, doctor, driver or educator in the game situation is already a manifestation of the internal position on the basis of which visual thinking begins to manifest itself.

A role-playing game with children of three or four years is organized by an adult who unobtrusively demonstrates how to act with a doll-daughter: feed her, rock, roll in a wheelchair. The child repeats for an adult the actions with the same or similar toy. At the same time, the teacher continues to play alongside and name the role played by the child: "You are now Mom, and Lala is your daughter." In the following days, the teacher creates a game environment, and the child can independently repeat the role-playing actions that he learned earlier. At this stage of mastering the game, the child's figurative thinking side by side with visual-efficient thinking, which was dominant at an early age.

Gradually the child begins to choose toys for the organization of the game story, but initially relies on the assortment that is presented in the kindergarten group. Visual thinking is not yet developed, and it is quite difficult to imagine what is not in the immediate environment. The task of the tutor of the younger group is to teach the child to unfold the plot action, combining several simple situations consistently: feed the doll, went to the store together, went home, put the doll to sleep. In the middle group, children can already use their substitutes for a lack of toys. Visual thinking helps the preschooler to present a wand in the form of a spoon, and a size in the form of a bottle. At this stage the child can already perform the transformation of the environment without reliance on only the objects that are presented in the playroom. It is a fantasy, imagination begins to work. The game is organized by the union of two or three people, where everyone performs his role, which the child chooses independently, and not at the direction of an adult. Roles are selected in accordance with the sex of the child: the boys play the role of the father, grandfather, son, and the girls - mothers, daughters, teachers, princesses.

In the older group, the symbolism in thinking can reach such a level that even substitute items are not needed. Children can transfer imaginary money to each other , have imaginary donuts and drink them with milk, which is only present in the presentation. At this age, the development of figurative thinking goes into the stage of forming an image based on thought, fantasy, which helps children to organize a game without toys: children themselves become images, fulfilling all roles. Therefore, they gladly stage tales, familiar works, playing the roles of both people and animals. The plot of the game can be covered by groups of children, where there is a leader who distributes roles, if children find it difficult to choose.

The imaginative thinking of children preparatory to the school group is characterized by the fact that in games, children not only take the initiative, but can make extensive use of natural images, as well as metaphors, comparisons, proverbs, sayings. In this case, we can talk about the development of the child's artistic type of thinking, as an option figurative. Playing scenes of the folklore genre, participating in folk festivals, using objects of antiquity in games help children imagine the life of their ancestors. Games begin to be cognitive, which indicates that the child is at the stage of transition to schooling.