Relevance. The article discusses the relationship between the development of joint (shared) attention of a child with an adult, and the social and cognitive development of the child. Based on previous studies of typically developing children that demonstrate their participation and responsiveness to fundamental social characteristics, it is significant to identify manifestations of atypical joint attention when a child does not register which object (event) or which aspects of this object (event) are the focus of an interlocutor's attention. The question of which aspects of joint attention are related to the normative development of the child makes this relevant for comparing groups with different forms of atypical development. For the study, the main indicator of understanding the intentions of the other in the direction of view was used, as one of the aspects of joint attention.

Objective. To compare the development of social cognition and joint attention among typically developing children and children with various forms of atypical development in order to identify the correlation between the theory of mind and cognitive lesion.

Methods. In a sample of preschool children with typical development and of those with mental retardation, hearing impairment, speech impairment, or visual impairment (N = 90), the following methods were used to evaluate the children's understanding of the intentions, desires, and interests of others by their behavioral manifestations: “Test for Erroneous Opinion”, “Sally-Ann”; the “What does Charlie want?” task, and others. The task was also used to assess the child’s ability to use the direction of a character’s gaze in a picture to determine the person’s intentions.

Results. We identified the “primary psychological” characteristics of the atypical development of the child, which prioritize violations of social communication. Several variations of the violation of joint attention were singled out by determining a person’s intentions by the direction of their gaze. It was shown that determining intentions by the direction of gaze is associated with the normative age formation of the child. Symptoms of deficiency in this skill vary depending on the specifics of the child’s atypical development.

Conclusions. Secondary deviations in the development of social cognition are specific to a particular primary defect. The limited inflow of information in the event of a violation of the analyzer creates unusual conditions in the children’s accumulation of the experience of social interaction that is necessary to form a mental model.

The article presents an overview of current research aimed at exploring the development of the executive functions of preschool children. The results of numerous studies indicate that executive functions influence different components of the academic success of children. In this regard, the question of the relationship between education and degree of development of the regulatory functions is of particular relevance. The article presents examples of individual and group approaches to the formation of executive functions in preschool age. It is shown that using a variety of strategies to work with preschool children possibly significant development of executive functions in the kindergarten. Special attention is paid to computerized programs of development of arbitrariness. Significant relationships between the quality of preschool education and the development of the executive functions were not found. Cultural characteristics have a much greater influence on the formation of arbitrariness.

The paper presents an overview of research aimed at understanding of the executive functions in childhood. The article shows that in studies focused on the role of the adult, and in the studies that pay attention to the interaction between peers and the impact of these processes on executive functions, it is clearly shown that executive functions are investigated in the line of the logic of cultural-historical theory (Vygotsky, Luria, Leontiev, Zaporozhets). It is shown that the importance of social interaction postulated by Vygotsky was experimentally justified in modern research. In these studies age dynamics in the formation of executive functions and the specific role of the adult in different stages of development are described. The communicative aspect of the interaction is emphasized, but role of an adult role as a carrier of cultural resources is not considered.

The presented work continues P.Ya. Galperin’s approach to the study of creative thinking. As is known, success of creative problem-solving tasks (CPS) at Galperin’s scientific school contacts with the organized and systematic approach to the analysis and solution of the task. Age-dependent-psychological and individual possibilities of preschoolers, primary school children and adolescents in the decision of some system of CPS features are analyzed.