Abstract:

The primary and most important aim of adults is to provide children with love, safety and acceptance. Children ought to be equipped with skills and abilities that will allow them to be self-reliant in the future and to independently cater for their needs and desires. Furthermore, children need to learn to trust the external world and acquire the rules of social life. Games and play, which accompany everyone from the first days of their lives, are very helpful in acquiring these skills. Games, undertaken by children every day, have their "implicit programme": on the one hand, they give one great pleasure, whereas on the other, they teach and develop.

Playing is the basic form of activity of preschool children. Moreover, it is a natural and primary form of learning in the life of a child. It satisfies one's need to be active, gives one a rich diversity of experiences, joy, and satisfaction. When playing games, children in preschool enter into relations with their peers, feel responsible for their group, learn how to cooperate and follow rules and regulations. Children realize how important it is to respect other people's and own property, or how significant it is to respect one's friend. Through playing children develop and shape their emotional spheres, thus learning to control one's emotions and how to remain unaffected by stress and failures.

Play supports the process of educating and teaching preschool children. Children can succeed and strive to attain their dream results when accomplishing tasks through an abundance of games. Implementing games into teaching minimizes child's efforts related to responsibilities. Children derive pleasure from playing. This feeling is one of the underlying criteria of distinguishing the described type of human activity from others, i.e. learning or working.

Moreover, games play a particular role in stimulating comprehensive development of children. The article presents research and analysis regarding the influence of play on social and moral development of preschool children.

Keywords:

Games, socio-moral development, child, preschool.