Reflective and creative use of symbolic means in play with social roles

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Abstract

This study presents the analysis of an intervention, in which the play with social roles was used with the use of symbolic means for the development of symbolic function in a group of 18 preschool children from Bogot, Colombia. The experimental training method proposed by Vygotsky was used in the activity of play with social roles. The analysis is made before and after the participation of the group of children in the program designed to identify changes in the symbolic function at the levels: materialized, perceptive and verbal. An analysis of the role that is fulfilled, the rules and the use of symbolic means in the play is also made. It is concluded that the mediatization and the social situation of development that is generated in the play with the use of symbolic means make possible the development of the will, which is the most important feature of personality development.

General Information

Keywords: play; symbolic function; personality; activity; preschool development

Journal rubric: Developmental Psychology

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/jmfp.2022110203

For citation: Gonzalez-Moreno C., Solovieva Y. Reflective and creative use of symbolic means in play with social roles [Elektronnyi resurs]. Sovremennaia zarubezhnaia psikhologiia = Journal of Modern Foreign Psychology, 2022. Vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 31–49. DOI: 10.17759/jmfp.2022110203. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

Full text

Introduction

The activity of play with social roles can be understood as a particular type of cultural activity. Such activity is predominant characteristic of preschool age, which involves collective and emotional communication between children and adults. In this activity, the children together with adult’s guidance learn to use symbolic means. In play with social roles activity, such means might be used on different levels, such as materialized, perceptual and verbal in a reflective and creative way [15]. The creation and use of reflective symbolic means represent the main form of cultural development of the child during pre-school age. According to previous psychological research, it has been identified that guidance is necessary for children to start using symbolic media during the play with social roles [15]. The orientation of the materialized, perceptual and verbal actions in the play with social roles allows to propose different solutions to the problems that arise during pre-school age. This enables children to develop stronger and more stable social bonds with the peers, which is a positive indicator of personality development. Symbolic materialized actions refer to the possibility of substituting one object for another when an action is performed that represents the object being substituted [17]. Symbolic perceptual actions consist of the possibility of representing at the graphic level the substitutes of objects that can already be understood as perceptual symbols [26]. Symbolic verbal actions refer to the most complex level of performance of the actions, equivalent to the linguistic aspect of the action, and arise as a product of a long development process [24].
The social play with roles is an excellent opportunity to experience emotional bonds with other children and a wide inclusion of symbolic means in the shared activity, in which the personality develops.
In the process of the development of personality, voluntary activity is considered as a central line of development [5]. Personality involves the ability to master one's own behavior and psychological processes [29], as well as the ability to internally self-regulation. The basis of psychological personality might be understood as gradual changes in particular structure of the subject's joint activities, which arises at a certain stage in the development of his human links with the world, together with the possibility of reflection on such activities [2, pp. 171]. At the same time, for Elkonin [6], the formation of personal behavior is the emergence of voluntary actions and behavioral acts. Voluntary action is directed towards proper established goal, towards the means and methods of external and internal activity and requires awareness of one's own actions, that is, it requires at least the reflective work of consciousness, as Smirnova wrote [5]. It’s clear that specific kinds of activities might guarantee positive development of both features of personality: self-reflection and voluntary self-regulation. Recent research on the transformation of the play with social roles by stages (social play with social roles and with the use of material objects, play with social roles with object substitutes, play with social roles with the use of objects and object-substitutes, play with social roles with increased initiative and narrative play with social roles) have proved to contribute effectively to the development of voluntary activity and personality [15; 17; 24; 26].
In the same way, psychological research indicates that in play with social roles with the use of material objects, the child represents social situations with the help of objects (toys) that correspond to roles or actions [1; 9; 27]. For example, for the restaurant play plates, pots, forks and spoons are used. In the play with social roles with the use of object substitutes, the child begins to use objects as substitutes for others, performing the actions corresponding to that other object that he imagines [15; 27].
In the play with social roles with the use of objects and object substitutes, the child uses objects according to their cultural use and, at the same time, uses objects imagining that they might be other objects with other different functions. So, the child performs the actions corresponding to that other object which represents [15]. In the play with social roles with increased initiative, it is observed that the child proposes roles, imaginary situations, problem situations, and ways to solve these problems [15; 27]. In the narrative play with social roles, the child manages to play the role of the characters in a story, change and invent situations in which there is a problem and it is solved with elements that are part of the imagination and reality [15].
The objective of the article is to characterize the development of the reflection about the elements of the play with social roles before and after their participation in the program designed for the introduction to this activity. The characteristics are taken up in relation to the role that is fulfilled, the rules and the use of symbolic means that children make in the play. To achieve this goal, questions have been developed that allow children to understand the elements of the play: the role, the rules and the symbolic means. The materialized, perceptive and verbal means have been taken into account to make this characterization.
 

Method

 
This research is guided by the formative experimental method proposed by Vygotsky [29], in which it is studied how a group of preschool children use symbolic means (materialized, perceptual and verbal) in the play with social roles. The research analyzed how the use of symbolic means contributes to the development of reflection and voluntary activity as a central aspect in the development of personality. During the play with social roles, different means on different levels were used: material means (objects), materialized means (use of object substitutes), perceptual means (draw-
ings) or verbal means (dividing the task into steps, explaining its procedure or giving examples). The various types of orienting aids have been studied in detail in activity theory and have been referred to by the term orientation base of action (OBA) [1; 28].
 

Participants

 
The study involved 18 children aged between 5 and 6 years. The children were the pupils of the last grade of preschool official educational institution in the city of Bogot (Colombia), of which 9 are girls and 9 boys with a mean age of 5.4 years.
 

Procedure

 
At the beginning and at the end of the school year, all participants were assessed with the help of protocol of the play with social roles designed by the authors of the article. After the application of the pre-test, the intervention program began. The program was carried out during a school year. The total of 130 play sessions were carried out. Each session was performed during 1 hour inside the educational institution in accordance with the Direction and the parents. The intervention program was designed considering theoretical and methodological contributions on the play [1; 9; 20; 27].
For the intervention, the stages of the activity of play with social roles were considered: social play with the use of objects [15; 27], social play with the use of object substitutes [15; 27], social play with the use of objects and object substitutes [15], social play with increased initiative and finally [15; 27], narrative social play [15; 20]. The concept of zone of proximal development was considered, for which various types of support aimed at dialogical conversation were considered to broaden and expand the content of the interactions that were part of the actions of the roles [29].

Instrument

 
Play evaluation protocol was applied. Orientation was important as a reflexive element of each action. The Table 1 shows the tasks by type of play (directed play, free play) considered in the applied evaluation protocol.
 

Results

 
The results are presented considering the types of answers for the pre-test and for the post-test. The characteristics of the reflective and creative use of symbolic means are also presented by levels of development (materialized, perceptual and verbal). Finally, positive and negative indicators of development in the play are presented.
It is observed that negative development indicators were present in the pre-test and positive development indicators were identified in the post-test (see table 3).
The use of symbolic means in a reflexive way allowed the possibility for creation of new symbolic means in the play. Consequently, the understanding of the meaning of symbolic means and the shared use of creative means was transformed and personal individual ideas that were expressed in creative actions of the children. These new forms of representation and the use of symbolic means were based on external actions with objects as substitutes for others, on visual images (icons) and on language as a verbal sign that was enriched and acquired new forms of expression. The table 4 presents the characteristics of the reflective and creative use of symbolic means by materialized, perceptive and verbal levels.
During the playing activity with social roles, the children planned their actions at the beginning of the play, then they carried out the actions and during this execution, they planned new actions that were expressed as a sequence of actions that included transformed details. This means that these forms of planning helped establish links between the events of the play. Here is an example of a conversation for one of the play activities «The pigs build their house»:
 
 
Tasks by type of play
Table 1
 

Play type

Tareas

Directed play

1) What play do you like? Why? How do you explain that play?

2) Imagine that you are going to play hospital with all the children in your room. What would you use to play hospital?

3) If you play hospital with all the children in your room, what roles do you think they could play?

4) In the hospital play with all the children in your room, how do you choose the roles? Imagine that everyone wants to be a doctor. How do you get them to agree to choose different characters? Do you propose any other option?

5) Imagine that you are the doctor. What would you say to a patient? What else could you tell him? Why would you tell him that? What does that mean you say?

Free play

Some toys are placed on the table and it is said "here we have different toys, how would you like to play with them? What play do you propose?"

Materials: plates, doll, cutlery, pot, sticks, cubes, rectangle, square, triangle Execution: the possibility of the child to propose and organize the play independently is observed, as well as the knowledge and mastery of it. If necessary, the play and its variants and rules are suggested.

Help: If the child does not start then the adult proposes the play. Imagine that this child is very hungry, what do you think we could prepare for him? The child is expected to continue.

 
Types of response in the pre-test and in the post-test
Table 2
 

Play type

Task

Types of answers

Pre-test

Post-test

Directed play

What play do you like?

I like to play ball and hide and seek

I like to play hospital, supermarket, shoe store, veterinary clinic, to discover treasures.

Imagine that you are going to play hospital with all the children in your room. What would you use to play hospital?

I would use syringes and that's it.

I would use a device to listen to the patients' hearts, a gown, some cards so that the nurse can call the patients in order.

In the hospital play with all the children in your room, how do you choose the roles? Imagine that everyone wants to be a doctor. How do you get them to agree to choose different characters? Do you propose any other option?

I do not know.

I would use a pirinola so that the children know what role we are going to play.

If all the children in my room want to be doctors, then we could not play hospital because we need the patients, the nurses, a janitor and a hospital director. I think we could let one doctor do the heart, one the head, and one the legs and arms. We could have three doctors.

 
 
Indicators of development in the play
Table 3
 

Play type

Task

Pre-test

Negative developmental indicators

Post-test

Positive developmental indicators

Directed play

What plays do you like?

·                     Unspecific use of objects

·                     Does not follow adult guidance

·                     Misses the objective of the activity

·                     does not answer

·                     Responds with support from adult guidance

·                     Cannot explain the reason for the choice of plays

·                     Can't explain how to play the plays he chooses

·                     Follows the direction of the adult

·                     Maintains the objective of the activity

·                     Reciprocity is evidenced in dialogic conversation in the roles of speaker and listener

·                     Answers that he likes the roles, mention some of the themes

·                     Maintains the objective of the activity

the plays that were considered during the intervention

Imagine that you are going to play hospital with all the children in your room. What would you use to play hospital?

·                     Cannot identify objects that could be used to play hospital does not answer

·                     Misses the point of what is being asked

·                     Cannot identify the roles that could participate

·                     Confuses roles with objects to use does not answer

·                     Misses the point of what is being asked

·                     Choose some objects, substitutes for objects and symbols characteristic of the hospital theme such as: the notebook, sheets, pens, the cross symbol, the role symbols, the closed and open symbols, the shift symbols patients, gowns, caps

·                     Maintains the objective of the activity

·                     Mentions characteristic roles of the hospital: doctors, nurse, patients, toilet man, cashier, administrator

·                     Maintains the objective of the activity

In the hospital play with all the children in your room, how do you choose the roles? Imagine that everyone wants to be a doctor. How do you get them to agree to choose different characters? Do you propose any other option?

·                     Does not answer

·                     Can't choose the roles

·                     Misses the point of what is being asked

·                     Mentions that he could use the pirinola, or the color roulette or that each child chooses the role he wants because it is the one he likes the most

·                     Maintains the objective of the activity

Imagine that you are the doctor what would you say to a patient? What you could more say?

Why did you would you say that? What does that mean that you say?

·                     Does not answer

·                     Cannot identify what to say to a patient

·                     Misses the point of what is being asked

·                     Mentions characteristic phrases that uses the doctor with patients:

·                     Maintains the objective of the activity

«good afternoon», «what hurts»,

«how does it feel»

What rules do you think we need to play hospital?

·                     Does not answer

·                     Cannot identify rules in the play

·                     Misses the point of what is being asked

·                     Poses rules of the play in a way deployed

·                     Explains the use of rules for the play

·                     Maintains the objective of the activity

Free play

Propose a play using different symbolic means

·                     Does not answer

·                     Fails to propose a play

·                     Misses the point of what is being asked

·                     Suggest a play

·                     Use items with a purpose

·                     Poses the use of objects as substitutes

·                     Participate in the roles of speaker and listener in a deployed way considering the theme

·                     Maintains the objective of the activity

 
Characteristics of the reflective and creative use of symbolic means by levels
Table 4
 

Level

Reflective use

Creative use

Symbolic materialized actions

* Children are aware of their actions with objects as substitutes for another and use them in an expanded way in their roles and relationships with others during play.

* Children use an object as a substitute for another, attributing multiple functions to it in the play according to the needs that are generated in a group.

Symbolic perceptual actions

* Children are aware of the use of graphic symbols (icons), they attribute sense and meaning to them to plan and solve problems, and they use them in an expanded way.

* Children propose the use of graphic symbols (icons) on their own initiative and attribute emotional meaning to them.

Symbolic verbal actions

* Children are aware of what they say to establish dynamic communicative relationships with other roles.

·                     Expression of their own ideas to create imaginary situations and stories that they manage to represent through roles.

·                     Images created by imagination arouse real feelings and emotions.

·                     Children manage to communicate feelings and emotions to the other participants in the play during their interactions.

 
Child (SB): My house is very strong.
Boy (JG): My house is very resistant to big bad wolves.
Researcher: I am the big bad wolf and I am going to knock down the house of all these little pigs (hehe).
Boy (AI): Look the wolf blew and threw something strange.
Researcher: Now everything has turned upside down. Child (DP): Backwards?
Researcher: Yes, now everything in this forest is upside down.
Girl (MC): Oh yes, look I'm not walking forwards but backwards.
Children: All the children start walking backwards.
Boy (HS): And my socks are no longer on my feet but on my hands.
Children: (Laughs) Boy (SB): That's fun.
Boy (JD): I don't think it's that funny.
Child (HS): My little feet are getting cold, we have to do something about the big bad wolf.
Girl (KC): We have to do something about that magic spell the big bad wolf cast on us.
Child (JD): What could we do? Child (CI): I don't know.
Child (JL): I don't know what we could do either. Child (AL): I have an idea.
Girl (AD): What's your idea little pig? Child (AL): Let's say the wolf liked music.
Researcher: I'm going to eat these little pigs. Boy (JD): That big bad wolf scares me.
Girl (KG): Come with me little pig JD.
Girl (MV): And what if we play a magic flute so that the wolf is happy.
Child (AI): And we could play a magic guitar. Girl (EC): I think the wolf likes the color green.
Girl (MV): I can make the magic instruments to enchant the big bad wolf because everything is backwards.
Girl (MC): We keep walking backwards.
Girl (KC): How about we all play our musical instruments at the same time to make them sound nice.
Researcher: I like that sound (lalala). Girl (MV): The wolf likes music.
Child (HS): But we continue backwards.
Girl (AD): We need to do something more powerful to end the Big Bad Wolf's reverse spell.
Girl (EC): I know we can use a little bottle enchanted with hearts I'm going to draw it. This little bottle protects us from the spell of the wolf.
Girl (MV): Yes, everything is fine now, I can walk well. Boy (HS): Yes and I have my socks on my feet.
Child (AI): It worked.
Girl (EC): This is a magic little bottle that has magic of hearts so that the wolf becomes good.
Researcher: (Starts to jump and hug the children-pigs) I'm very hungry.
Girl (MV): Yes, now the wolf is no longer ferocious, now he is a good little wolf.
Girl (AD): Little wolf we can invite you to eat ice cream. Child (CI): I'm hungry too.
Child (HS): I am making ice cream for everyone (imaginary actions).
Child (AI): These ice creams are very tasty.
Our results have pointed out that, through the graphic perceptual means, the children were able to express the play experience in a concrete way, giving greater meaning to the decisions they made during the play (see table 5).
The children needed the adult to establish specific relationships between the roles and their actions verbally and through their representation, which captivated them and made it possible to expand the arguments by increasing and making the actions more complex. The children understood the meaning of their actions in the play, which made new actions appear. The actions with the concrete objects were transformed into symbolic and imaginative actions and then into actions that were part of the roles. For example, the children identified various real objects (glasses), then they identified actions that they could perform with them (to drink juice with the glass or to imagine that the glass is magical and inside they can find special powders to turn a real child-animal into an imaginary child-animal), then
Table 5
Example of the sequences of symbolic means in the graphic plane in the play «The little pigs build their house»
 

 

House building symbol MV girl

 

Symbol of the big bad wolf trying to enter through the door of a house of the little pigs

 

Symbol of the character who launched the wolf when he tried to knock down the pigs' houses

AI child

 

Symbol of the musical instruments used to enchant the big bad wolf

MV and AI group drawing

 

Symbol of the enchanted bottle that transformed the wolf into a good and kind wolf

EC Girl

Celebration ice cream symbol AD child

 
they identified that they could perform actions with the glasses to relate to the other roles (such as the fairy who uses the glasses to give the children of the enchanted castle colored magic potions in each glass to make the cat not ate the tooth goblin). This means that at the beginning, the meaning of the play was centered on the actions with the real objects and with the substitutes of objects, later the meaning was reflected in the relationships with the other children and then the meaning was based on the characteristic relationships of the role that was played represented and related to the other roles in a creative and imaginative way considering
the rules [15]. The Table 6 shows the transformations of the elements of the play with social roles in the post-test.
 

Discussion

 
Within activity of play with social roles with broad emotional involvement, the children as psychological subjects of own the activity, learn to use symbolic means at the materialized, perceptual and verbal levels in a reflexive and creative way. In our study, the use of the objects was trans-
 
 
Transformations of the elements of the play with social roles
Table 6
 

Elements of social role play

Pre-test

Post-test

Role

Unstable participation in the role.

Deep emotional involvement of children with their role.

Rules

Difficulty accepting the rule, tendency to act impulsively.

The rules are linked to the way of communicating the experience and vision of the world.

Use of symbolic means

Difficulty in using diverse symbolic means in a creative and open way at the levels: materialized, perceptual and verbal.

Difficulties were identified in proposing and maintaining an objective in the activity.

Possibility of creating and representing different imaginary situations. Use of narrative language to represent real and imagined experience.

The use of symbolic means at the materialized, perceptual and verbal levels helped the development of voluntary activity because it made it possible for children to direct their actions towards an established goal considering the interactive social relationships with the other roles.

formed from the use of object substitutes and the use of imaginary objects, in the same way. The space in the play was transformed from the use of objects to the use of words and actions, which made it possible to create narrative situations in the last stage of intervention in which adventure and fantasy themes were observed, as proposed by Hakkarainen and Bredikyte [20]. The children gave meaning and sense to these symbolic means in the proper actions of the play, which is an indicator of the development of voluntary activity, as Leontiev [3] states. In addition, this presupposed the formation of new motives at each stage of play with social roles guided by adult’s oral and material orientation, which led to the psychic development of the group of children [4]. Adult’s orientation and constant communication during the playing with social roles allowed children to learn to use different symbolic means with the purpose of the play and to express their ideas more easily, according to the content of each play [8]. In the play with social roles, affective and verbal communication was developed; the children's verbal expression was displayed, acquiring a voluntary character. This means that the play with social roles with the use of symbolic means allowed better interpersonal relationships of trust, patience and empathy to be developed in relation to the other participants of the play with social roles. The adult's language helped regulate the children's actions through the use of various reflective symbolic means.
The children changed their attitude with the role they represented considering the understanding and meaning of each role and correspondent actions as the intervention sessions passed. As a means of signifying actions, children used language (verbal expressions). At the beginning, the children used language as a mean of communication with the other roles. Later on, they used it as a means of regulating behavior (they spoke to plan actions or while performing various actions with substitute objects or with imaginary objects). The action became more complex as the children became aware of the identification of the actions of the roles of others and those of their own role, which allowed them to separate from the other and execute their actions in the best possible way to characterize the character they were portraying [15]. The development of the child's personal awareness, his or her own position regarding the role and relationships with others is the result of the complexity of the actions in the play, as proposed by Elkonin [6].
Just as Elkonin [9] says, the role and the actions related to the role in terms of their performance constitute the unity of the play, in the role the affective-motivational aspects of the activity are represented in an indissoluble unity. The fact of adopting the posture of a character and assuming a certain role feeling what he did and said led the child to behave beyond his development, which allowed finding the zone of proximal development [15].
The rules did not arise arbitrarily in the play with social roles, but appeared according to the imaginary situations recreated in the play. The rules did not appear from the beginning of the play, but originated when the children understood their roles, when the need to relate to others was
generated and when the children wanted the play to last over time. When the play became more developed, the more internal rules there were and the greater number of playful aspects were extended: the interrelationships of the roles, the meanings attributed to the toy and the continuity in the unfolding of the argument [20; 27], as well as the invention of objects and imaginary situations.
At the beginning, in the stage of play with social roles with the use of objects, the children's interest was specifically oriented towards objects, later this interest was directed to social relationships, which made it possible for them to develop effectively in the face of specific situations that arose in the play. In this way, relationships with other people were transformed because they learned to resolve conflicts.
It was also observed that the children in the play learned to carry out actions in the materialized, perceptive and verbal plane according to the role they represented, the establishment of joint objectives, the subordination of motives (they were transformed from external to internal), the mediation of rules (with the use of materialized, perceptive and verbal means considering the theme and the intention of the play) and respect for moral rules (respect for the point of view of others, being kinder to others, delivering what better self), which made it possible to regulate their own behavior, develop skills to create and maintain relationships, conflict resolution, the communication process, initiative and the negotiation of meanings.
One of the characteristics of the will in children was its conscious character, as stated by Smirnova [5]. The awareness of the action (external and internal) was expressed with the use of language, which allowed self-control through the organization and planning of actions [29]. Another characteristic refers to the relationship of the motive (concretion of the need for the activity) with the objective, which according to Leontiev [3] is the main characteristic of voluntary activity. With the passing of the intervention sessions in each of the stages of the play, the children began to behave without depending on the specific circumstances, but began to be directed by their own objectives, that is, establishing a hierarchy between the motives, as well as what raises Bozhovich [8]. This is expressed in the possibility of choosing the roles, the themes, the symbolic means and the imaginary situations and in the need, which was generated to participate actively establishing social bonds with others. The content of the motives addressed the social relationships that the children established with the other roles. They began to be careful about what they said and did during the play with social roles.
In addition, with the help of adult guidance, the children learned to become aware of the collective motives of the play by establishing relationships of emotional reciprocity with the other roles in each theme of the play. Likewise, it was identified that the children learned to form the intentions, which were directed to social relations. It was identified that when the children's own desires arose to give the best of themselves in each action corresponding to the roles they represented, they made this action voluntary, as Elkonin [6] states. At the beginning of the play, the motives were provided by the adult, later the children themselves began to consider joint motives.
In each play session the children were given the opportunity to talk about what they needed to play (objects, substitutes for objects, roles, actions, rules, imaginary situations, details corresponding to the scenarios that they might need) which did part of planning and served as a precursor to the thoughtful use of symbolic means. Planning is one of the essential components of reflexive intentional behavior in the play, as proposed by Bodrova, Germeroth and Leong [7]. The planning was carried out verbally and by means of drawings, which made it possible for the children to project details of the imaginary situations for the resolution of the problem situations.
It was observed that during the course of the intervention, the children began to exchange some needs for others, which moved their psychic development forward because it made it possible to set motivating objectives, that is, affectively charged ones. The distribution of the roles from the very beginning of the intervention was done randomly, which constitutes a means to guide the children through the use of external means [27].
 

Conclusions

 
The results of the research allow to conclude that the formation of the child's personality in preschool age is determined by the correlation between the place that he occupies in the system of human relations accessible to him (and, consequently, between the corresponding demands that are made) of on the one hand, and on the other, by the psychological peculiarities already formed as a result of their previous experience, as proposed by Bozhovich [8, p. 142].
Likewise, it is concluded that, by representing different roles in the play, the children learned about various aspects of human relationships and their meanings, and began to reflect on the world and on themselves. That means that the play with social roles allows children to begin to consciously influence the reality that surrounds them, transform it and transform themselves, as proposed by Bozhovich [8]. It is hypothesized that these changes occurred because the symbolic media served to formalize and regulate the play activity [27]. At first, these means were proposed by the adult and later the children give another meaning to the same means and use them with independence and initiative in the play. This means that symbolic media require behavior that is not free but specific and very particular, corresponding to the actions of the roles that are part of the content of each particular play imaginary situation.
In the same way, in preschool age, the symbolic function at the complex level led the child to experience changes in social activity and personality, as well as to generate affective bonds with the other participants in the play. This affective bond facilitated a development in the emotional area, which ensured a balanced general personality development. Playful activity was presented as an organized and guided activity in contrast to the view of freedom and free interaction as a better form of psychological development. Planned, organized, and adultguided with play with social roles offers deep affective communication and collaboration within the group of preschool children [10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 18; 19; 21; 22; 25; 27].
In this research, it was found that in the play with social roles the child's action was transformed, it went from being determined by the order of the adult (shared action between people) to become an action regulated by the child himself [23]. This became a fundamental characteristic of the voluntary activity and the reflection about the use of the means that the child achieved in the play with social roles.

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  10. González-Moreno C.X. Actividad comunicativa interactiva en una experiencia de juego grupal con niños en edad preescolar. Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos de Psicolog a, 2017. Vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 43—60. DOI:10.18270/chps..v17i2.2100

  11. González-Moreno C.X. Formación de la función simbólica por medio del juego temático de roles sociales en niños preescolares. Revista de la Facultad de Medicina, 2015. Vol. 63, no. 2, pp. 235—241. DOI:10.15446/revfacmed. v63n2.47983

  12. González-Moreno C.X. Importancia del juego tem tico de roles sociales en la edad preescolar. Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Educativos, 2022. Vol. LII, no. 1, pp. 299—320. DOI:10.48102/rlee.2022.52.1.478

  13. González-Moreno C.X. Juego de roles sociales, función simbólica y desarrollo de la personalidad en la edad preescolar. Revista Obutch nie, 2021. Vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 18—42. DOI:10.14393/OBv5n1.a2021-60584

  14. González-Moreno C.X. La situación imaginaria como elemento esencial del juego de roles sociales en la edad preescolar. Revista de Psicología Universidad de Antioquia, 2018. Vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 75—101. DOI:10.17533/udea.rp. v10n2a04

  15. González-Moreno C.X. El juego de roles sociales como medio de formación de la función simbólica en niños preescolares [The play of social roles as a means of training the symbolic function in preschool children]: Doctoral thesis: Interinstitutional Doctorate in Education. Puebla, Mexico: Iberoamerican University of Puebla, 2016.

  16. González-Moreno C.X., Solovieva Y. Impacto del juego de roles sociales en la formación de la función simbólica en preescolares. Revista de Psicología Universidad de Antioquia, 2016. Vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 49—70. DOI:10.17533/udea.rpsua. v8n2a04

  17. González-Moreno C.X., Solovieva Y. Indicadores de adquisición de la función simbólica en el nivel de acciones materializadas en preescolares. Pensamiento Psicológico, 2015. Vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 79—94. DOI:10.11144/Javerianacali. PPSI13-2.iafs

  18. González-Moreno C.X., Solovieva Y. Propuesta de método para el estudio de la formación de la función simbólica en la edad infantil [Elektronnyi resurs]. Tesis Psicológica, 2014. Vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 58—79. URL: https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/1390/139039784005.pdf (Accessed 15.06.2022).

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  20. Hakkarainen P., Bredikyte M. How play creates the zone of proximal development [Elektronnyi resurs]. In Robson S., Flannery S. (eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of Young Children's Thinking and Understanding. New York: Routledge, 2014, pp. 31—42. URL: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315746043-5 (Accessed 15.06.2022).

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  22. Hakkarainen P., Bredikyte M. The zone of proximal development in play and learning [Elektronnyi resurs]. Cultural- historical psychology, 2008. Vol. 4, pp. 2—11. URL: https://psyjournals.ru/en/kip/2008/n4/Hakkarainen_full.shtml (Accessed 15.06.2022).

  23. Luria A.R. Las funciones corticales superiores del hombre (3rd ed.). Mexico: Fontamara, 2015. 736 p.

  24. Solovieva Y., González-Moreno C.X. Indicadores de adquisición de la función simbólica en el nivel de acciones verbales en preescolares. Revista de la Facultad de Medicina, 2016. Vol. 64, no. 2, pp. 257—265. DOI:10.15446/revfacmed. v64n2.52995

  25. Solovieva Y., González-Moreno C.X. Introducing social role-play to Colombian children 5-6 years [Elektronnyi resurs]. In Bruce T., Hakkarainen P., Bredikyte M. (eds.), The Routledge International Handbook Early Childhood Play. London and New York: Routledge, 2017, pp. 108—124. URL: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315735290-12 (Accessed 15.06.2022).

  26. Solovieva Y., González-Moreno C.X., Quintanar L. Developmental Analysis of Symbolic Perceptual Actions in Preschools. British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioral Science, 2016. Vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 1—13. DOI:10.9734/ BJESBS/2016/24459

  27. Solovieva Y., Quintanar L. La actividad de juego en la edad preescolar. Mexico: Trillas, 2012. 142 p.

  28. Talizina N.F. La teoría de la actividad aplicada a la enseñanza [Elektronnyi resurs]. Puebla: Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, 2009. 383 p. URL: https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4905269/mod_resource/content/2/LIVRO%20 TEORIA%20DE%20LA%20ACTIVIDAD%201.pdf (Accessed 15.06.2022).

  29. Vygotski L.S. Obras escogidas. Vol III. Problemas del desarrollo de la psique Madrid Visor, 1995. 381 p.

Information About the Authors

Claudia-Ximena Gonzalez-Moreno, Doctor of Psychology, Interinstitutional Doctorate in Education, Universidad Iberoamericana de Puebla, Specialist in Children's and Youth Literature and Master in Education with emphasis on cognitive development, cre- ativity and learning in educational systems, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia; Speech therapist, National Uni- versity of Colombia; Pontifica University Javeriana, Bogota, Puebla, Mexico, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8099-8605, e-mail: aveivolosailuy@gmail.com

Yulia Solovieva, PhD in Psychology, Director Master Program in Neuropsychological Diagnosis and rehabilitation, Faculty of Psychology, Autonomus University of Puebla, Puebla, Mexico, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5610-1474, e-mail: yulia.solovieva@correo.buap.mx

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