Toyroom time: the role-playing game in focus

Abstract

This article is part of a doctoral research and discusses the 3 to 5 years old childre’ns activities developed in the playroom of a Childhood Education school, focusing on social role-playing, founded on the Cultural- Historical theory. The objective was to observe whether the children realize the role-playing on them interactions during the time in the playground. The results indicated children's attachment to toys/objects, hindering the advancement of role-playing, since they spend too much time on conflicts. The 5-year-old class showed a quantitative increase in social role play compared to the 3-year-old class, but that difference did not mean qualitative advances, once the variety of social roles was little; the actions had little variation too, as well, the themes and dialogues were punctual and short. We do not observe the initiative, independence and goal achievement in the children. Thus, without the teacher's intervention, children develop social role play in a simplified format, indicating the need for planned intervention in the children's zone of proximal development, helping them select and experience themes in their relationships with toys and other objects.