ASSEMBLY AND DISASSEMBLY TOYS AS A CHOICE OF ONE-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN AND A STIMULUS FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENT

• Liubov Artemova

  Olexander Dovzhenko Glukhiv National Pedagogical University

  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7070-2927

• Valentyna Borova

  Private Higher Educational Institution "International Economic and Humanitarian University named after Academician Stepan Demyanchuk"

  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7228-4290

• Svitlana Titarenko

  Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University named after Oleksandr Dovzhenko

  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5544-3376

Problem statement. Theoretical analysis of scientific sources has shown that assembly and disassembly toys have always been evaluated from the perspective of an adult, for whom it was important to organize their developmental impact on children. However, scientists and educators have not studied these toys from the perspective of the child, specifically regarding what attracts children to them. Our long-term observations and experiments have revealed a clear selectivity of children of various early ages toward certain types of assembly and disassembly toys. The choice made by children is determined not only by their interest but also by the psychological and sensory capabilities of each age group – from birth to three years. The subsequent research material is analyzed precisely from the position of the choice made by the child as a subject of activity with various types of assembly and disassembly toys.

Purpose of the study: to identify and substantiate the choice of assembly and disassembly toys by children of various early ages.

          Research methods:

• theoretical analysis, generalization, and synthesis of scientific sources on the research topic;
• personal, objective, and play interaction of an adult with children based on the subjectivity of each participant;
• creation of choice situations for children within the object-play environment of their immediate surroundings;
• surveying parents and educators using questions developed by researchers regarding children's choice of constructive toys among others;
• quantitative processing, qualitative analysis, and interpretation of the obtained results and examples of children's choices and actions with toys.

Main results of the study. The most accessible toys, even for the youngest, are inset toys: boxes with round holes and elastic bands, buckets of various sizes, shaped inset matrices, and two-half eggs. Such toys and objects are most used by infants starting from the second half of the first year of life.

In the second year, the number of inset toys used by children increases, as more complex insets appear: sets for inserting and removing various geometric shapes, complex playhouses with different animals placed in the windows, 3- and 4-sided boxes with corresponding elastic bands, blocks of various sizes, fasteners, stickers, etc.

In the third year, actions with assembly and disassembly toys are generally mastered, success is easily achieved, and children lose interest in them. Instead, children begin to take an interest in various fasteners on belts, bags, etc., as well as other types of belt fasteners, buttons, and zippers on clothing.

          Scientific novelty of the research results. Age differences in the choice of assembly toys by children of various early age groups and the specifics of the development of their play programs have been studied. The role and methods of interaction between adults (parents and educators) and children of different ages within the early years were explored through the autodidactic nature of assembly toy programs, the choices made by children, and their natural desire for independence in solving play tasks.

Conclusions and specific proposals of the authors. As a result of the analysis of the play programs of various assembly and disassembly toys, their varieties were identified and classified by typical play tasks: toys with insets made of parts of objects with a specific task and result; component toys of a whole based on the content of images, shape, size, and color with fixed and creative play tasks and results; and cards for identifying and matching their images. The features of the autodidactic programs of various assembly toys allow for increasing the effectiveness of the object-subject interaction between adults and children to grant children independence in solving play tasks.

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Copyright (c) 2026 Любов Артемова, Валентина Борова, Світлана Титаренко

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