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The effectiveness of adult support of children’s play in large and small groups // Pedagogical Review. 2025. Issue 2 (60). P. 16-28

Play is understood as the leading activity of a child, in which the main mental functions of age are formed. Play is a cultural practice and it needs special ways to transmit it to the younger generation. There is an opinion that the best way is to support the play and carry it out in the format of small groups, but this has not been specifically studied. The present work is aimed at filling this gap. It was assumed that the format of supporting children’s play by adults affects the dynamics of the development of play activities of children aged 4 years: support play in small groups is more effective than support play in a large group of children. The study consisted of three stages: 1) pre-test; 2) formative experiment; 3) post-test. At the second stage, in the first experimental group, the psychologist support play of the entire group of children (n = 22), in the second – play was supported in subgroups of 4–5 people (n = 18); in the control group children’s play was not supported (n = 21). The sample consisted of 61 people: 31 boys (50.8%) and 30 girls (49.2%). The support for the play lasted 3 months. The results showed greater effectiveness of supporting children’s play in small groups than in large ones. Statistically significant differences were also obtained between the 2nd experimental group and the control group. No statistically significant differences were found between the 1st experimental and control groups.

Keywords: story-based role-playing game, play support, organization of play, format of play