Zabawki w świecie dziecka – między fascynacją a rozczarowaniem. Konteksty edukacyjne

Abstract

The article presents the analysis of children’s statements about the role of toys in their life. In the article, the author focused on determining what a toy is for a child, and what the children’s expectations and requirements are regarding toys. Achieving such a specific goal required clarifying several groups of problems; first of all: What do children consider a toy, how do they perceive a toy, how do they describe it? Second: What are the children’s preferences regarding toys? Third: How do they use toys, in which circumstances, and is it safe for them? In order to be able to answer the above questions, the author tried to reach the child’s world by analyzing their language expression. The subject of the study were the statements of five/six-year-old children about the world in which they live or in which they would like to live. 94 children from the urban environment took part in the study. The content analysis was used as a research method. The analyses made it possible to distinguish four groups of toys used by the examined children. In addition, the research has revealed the ways and circumstances in which children reach for this type of toys. In the final part of the article, the conclusions from the research were indicated. It turns out that the preferences of children regarding toys depend on the sex of the examined children and depend on the forms of activity preferred by children; in addition, children’s preferences differ from the market offer. In the context of the conducted research, the educational values of toys and the possibility of their use in building the educational environment deserve special attention.