How Experience of Traditional Play Influenced Children's Readiness to Act in Dangerous Situations – Discussed at the MSUPE Discussion Platform
On June 26, the fifth webinar "Step by Step: Traditional Play Returns to Russian Kindergartens" was held at the discussion platform "Science in Publications: From Idea to Practice" with the support of the MSUPE Boiling Point. The webinar was part of a series of meetings aimed at supporting preschool educators in mastering the Folk Games Program, developed by the Faculty of Legal Psychology at MSUPE and recommended by the Ministry of Education as a method for preparing children to act in situations of terrorist threat.
Speakers:
- Vladimir Anatolyevich Chernushevich, Associate Professor at the Department of Legal Psychology and Law, Faculty of Legal Psychology, MSUPE.
- Anna Borisovna Teplova, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor at the Department of Legal Psychology and Law, Faculty of Legal Psychology, MSUPE.
- Ekaterina Anatolyevna Kupriyanova, Senior Lecturer, Psychologist at the Educational and Production Laboratory, Faculty of Legal Psychology, MSUPE.
- Marina Grigorievna Mogilevchik, Educational Psychologist, Head of the "Forest Play" Club.
- Nina Nikolaevna Chuprakova, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Legal Psychology, MSUPE.
Currently, more than 58 regions of Russia from Kamchatka to Kaliningrad have officially joined the implementation of the program (1,700 participants, educators, music directors, physical education instructors).
The webinar analyzed the games from the Program in terms of their impact on children's mobilization readiness to act in typical terrorist threat situations and reviewed the results of observations of children's behavior made during the all-Russian drills in April 2026.
Traditional games contribute to group cohesion, the ability to trust one's own, readiness to act on command, the ability, when necessary, to sit quietly and control emotional expression, and so on.
The webinar also discussed the future of the project and the creation of regional support sites for the introduction of traditional folk games, based on the principles described by E.A. Pokrovsky, into regular kindergarten practice.
Participants in their feedback noted that they are already seeing positive changes in children's behavior and thanked the speakers for the detailed analysis of games and for the inspiration for further work for the benefit of children and the future of Russia.
Publications by the speakers on the webinar topic:
- Chernushevich, V.A., Kupriyanova, E.A., Bobryshova, E.I. (2016). Folk game culture as a means of forming communication norms in childhood. Psychology and Law, 6(2), 93–106.
- Teplova, A.B., Chernushevich, V.A. (2017). Resources of folk games as a sociocultural means of preventing deviant behavior. Cultural-Historical Psychology, 3(3), 51–59.
- Teplova, A.B., Chernushevich, V.A., Chuprakova, N.N. (2020). Problems of introducing folklore game practice as a corrective and preventive resource (results and prospects of experimental work). Psychology and Law, 10(2), 64–77.
- Chernushevich, V.A. (2023). Folk games as a phenomenon of inculturation of the modern child. Psychology and Law, 13(3), 119–134.
Recordings of past webinars: