Full-Fledged Development of Narrative Role-Playing

Abstract

The paper supplements the concept of the development of narrative role-playing. The “anchor” of the analysis is the definition, provided more than thirty years ago by D.B. Elkonin, of play and its unit and the concept of the emergence, flourishing, and decline of this type of play. A description is presented of the key points in the development of the form of play activity from the stage when narrative role-playing is merely a future necessity to the stage of its actual form and finally to the point when it becomes a resource for further development. The focus is on the child’s inner experience of the play activity and on the two dimensions and conflict inherent in the transition to a new form of activity. The axis of the description of the ontogenesis of narrative role-playing is the process of the emergence of new forms of activity: “make believe” during the early years; the dual-phase play activity, in which a challenge and a response to the challenge are bound up (preschool years); the internal action plan (school age). The paper presents not only a scientific picture of the development of play based on experimental data, but also the place/prevalence of play in children’s lives.