Visual Model as a Cultural Tool for Preschool Children

This study is aimed at testing the hypothesis of the relationship between visual modeling and the development of arbitrariness. The results of an empirical study conducted on a sample of 149 children (44,3% boys) aged 53 to 70 months (M=62,8; SD=3,53) are presented. The "Schematization" technique and subtests of the NEPSY II battery were used to diagnose executive functions. The results showed that schematized representations act as cultural means of regulating the behavior of preschoolers. A correlation was found between the results of the execution of the methodology for schematization by children of the senior kindergarten group and the results of diagnostics of the development of executive functions of preschoolers, both in the senior kindergarten group and in the preparatory group (longitudinal study). The results showed that in boys, the structuring of behavior control mechanisms is associated with the processes of schematization using signs. In girls – with the processes of schematization with the help of directions. It is suggested that the development of the mechanism of regulation of behavior with schematized representations in preschoolers follows two lines: 1) along the line of strengthening the emerging links and 2) along the line of their differentiation.