Vygotsky’s contributions to understandings of emotional development through early childhood play

ABSTRACT

As societies become more aware of the importance of early socio-emotional skills for children’s later success, teachers report that they are ill-equipped to support and enhance these skills within their ‘traditional’ teacher role. This paper turns to the contributions that Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky and his adherents have made to our understanding of emotional development in early childhood. Following several main ways that his developmental theory described development through play, it proposes an extra social–individual dialectical relationship to explain emotional development specifically. The model supposes a special role that educators must assume to enhance emotional development through play: allowing children to understand and experience their perezhivanie at an individual level such that it is not relegated to only the social, as is the case in many cultures (e.g. when anger is admonished). This role adds to the recently proliferating literature on the adult’s active role in pedagogical play.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood education and care (ECEC)
• play
• emotional development
• Vygotsky
• perezhivanie

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Russian Science Foundation (Grant number 19-18-00521).

Notes on contributors

Yeshe Colliver

Dr Yeshe Colliver is an Honorary Lecturer at the Macquarie School of Education. He has worked in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings for nearly a decade in multiple cities across the world including Osaka (Japan), Ulsan (South Korea), Wakayama (Japan), Concepcion (Chile), Granada (Spain) and Honiara (Solomon Islands). Through his work and life overseas, he has acquired an interest in natural learning that we have evolved with (e.g., the types we needed in Indigenous cultures). His career has reflected a belief in two premises: that all social problems can be addressed most effectively through education, and that early childhood is the most crucial period in life. Historical records helped him develop the Following in Our Footsteps intervention, which has demonstrated the effect parents and educators can have on children's interest in literacy and numeracy in just 4 weeks. By partnering, educators and parents can significantly increase the amount children choose to play with literacy and numeracy in their free play. This can result in greater reading, writing and arithmetic on standardised tests. The intervention shows that adults can get young children more interested in useful learning without depriving them of choice or their human right to play - and this results in real learning.

Nikolay Veraksa

Prof Nikolay Veraksa is Leading Scientific Researcher at the Russian Academy of Education, Professor of Moscow State Pedagogical University and Leading Scientific Researcher at Moscow City University, Russia. Since 1998 Professor Veraksa is the Head of Department of Psychology and Pedagogical Abilities in Research Institute of Preschool Education (Russian Academy of Education). Since 2003 Professor Veraksa has been the head of the Russian Psychological Society's structure-dialectical developmental psychology section. Since 2004 he has also been the Head of Moscow City University of Psychology and Education Social Psychology Faculty's Department of Social Developmental Psychology. Since 2009 Prof. Veraksa is a scientific advisor of Research centre of education and upbringing of children (UNESCO, Moscow City Department of Education). Since 2011 Prof. Veraksa is a Dean of Faculty of Psychology of Education of Russian State University for the Humanities. Nikolay's merits in the field of education were honored by the Moscow government and he was many times been awarded Governmental prizes. Under his supervision, over 30 PhD theses were defended.Professor Veraksa is an author of more than 100 books and articles (some of which were written in collaboration with Professor Diachenko) on problems of developmental psychology, psychology of personality, education and social psychologies.