1 Introduction

The main objective of this article is to analyze the dialectical relationships between play and games in the educational field as activities that promote human development from a historical-social-cultural and dialectical perspective. Thus, emphasizing the content as an activity, development, and suitable resource in the educational practice organization through teaching work. Based on the works of ^{Elkonin (2009}, 2017), Vygotsky (1996, 2008, 2017), ^{Leontiev (1983}, 2010), ^{Luria (1992}, 2010), and ^{Wallon (1975}, 2007), the possible connection and intersection points between the authors' ideas. The main question is what theoretical resolutions do the authors Elkonin, Vygotsky, Leontiev, Luria, and Wallon show regarding the perception and development of play and games as activity, human development, and teaching resource? Those authors' choice is due to the theoretical and methodological proposal to which they subscribe, signaling play and games in the historical-dialectical materialist perspective. In this sense, they can contribute as a theoretical proposal, in the academic production - ^{Nascimento, Araújo and Miguéis (2009}), ^{Silva (2010}), among others -, works that develop theoretical references in Soviet authors on play and games - Elkonin, Vygotsky, Luria, and Leontiev - to the detriment and absence of Wallon, who also writes dialectically in the materialist proposal.

Throughout this work, dialectics is supported by the work of ^{Marx (1968}, 1982) and ^{Vicente (2007}) as a method and analysis of knowledge to understand theories about play and games, elucidating the main dialectics categories that are relevant to the object of study. After that, there is a theoretical presentation of play and games as essential child activities and the human development process, followed by dialogues about theories on the use of play and games as teaching resources necessary for the organization of teaching work. In the end, a synthesis is shown accompanied by a table that presents the confluence points of the authors' theories, expressing play and games with their main ramifications, based on dialectical and historical materialism.

2 Dialectics as a method and analysis of knowledge about play and games

To clarify and analyze the knowledge about play and games, we used the historical-dialectical method, evidenced above all in works by ^{Marx (1968}, 1982) and laid out in the works of ^{Gadotti (1990}) and ^{Vicente (2007}). Understanding the world and human activity from a historical-dialectical perspective implies a necessary historical analysis of the multiple determinations of the object of study in question. In this case, about play and games, understanding their relationships in the dialectical pair of man-world.

Man, as a subject and object of history, relates to the world - understood as a natural and socio-material environment - both in its immediate form (as it appears to humans) and in its mediated form (as it appears to be or as it is represented). When speaking about the world, we must take into account not only the sensitive experiences taken from it but also its entire humanized character. It means that we have to learn and explain the objective properties of the environment, and its social and material-historical conditions of existence, directly referring to class relations. (^{BARBOSA, 1991}, p. 216).

It's impossible to dissociate the social relationship between human beings and the world because both the play and the games are intrinsically human and social activities that are established through the human-world relationship. It's considered that dialectics can overcome the method of searching for the truth and the understanding of reality in constant transformations, as presented by ^{Vicente (2007}), arguing that dialectics is above all a weapon of revolution, understanding of reality, a method for coming to truth and art. ^{Marx (1968}, p. 17) makes clear his revolutionary position when talking about dialectics:

Dialectics […], in its rational form, causes scandal and horror to the bourgeoisie and the spokespeople of its doctrine, because its conception of the existent, affirming it, includes, at the same time, the recognition of negation and the necessary destruction of it; because it apprehends, according to its transitory character, the forms in which becoming is configured; because, in the end, nothing is allowed to be imposed, and it is, in its essence, critical and revolutionary.

Dialectics stands out in the reactionary conception, perceiving reality in a constant modification, in the continuous movement of changes and transformations, accompanied by its reflective and critical essence. Supported by Marxist readings, ^{Gadotti (1990}, p. 19) states that “The dialectic in Marx isn't just a method to discover the truth, it is a conception of men, society and the relationship between man and the world”.

Since dialectics is an understanding of the man-world relationship, relations between man and his appropriations of material reality can't be excluded, which, in turn, are present in the world. Dialectics can't be dissociated from human thought and the relationship with the world, above all, it's associated with consciousness.

About dialectics, ^{Marx (1968}, 1982) presents some “laws”, dialectics categories, highlighting the following: totality (in which everything is related maintaining confluence points), movement, qualitative transformations, and contradictions. As for the categories, ^{Vicente (2007}) states that concepts related to subjectivity are present through human thought to material and immaterial human production and to the contradictions that allow us to understand the essence of the object of study. For Vicente (2007), the contradiction category allows the apprehension of reality, understanding the elements of the object of study in question, and subsidizing the understanding of the whole with the specifics, perceiving the transformations that are always in motion.

To dialogue with the ideas of Elkonin, Vygotsky, Leontiev, Luria, and Wallon, the foundations of historical-dialectical materialism are verified in their theories when they discuss their knowledge about play and games. Thus, we intend to analyze all these aspects, verifying their transformations and relationships between the associated knowledge on which they touch on, dialoguing with the main theoretical references listed in this text to understand them in confluence with the presented dialectic categories - totality, movement, transformation and contradiction.

3 Play and games as activity, development and teaching resource

The conceptual terms play and games are explained by understanding them not as synonyms nor as activities that have such specific characteristics that they are different and distant one from the other, but that encompass, in their specificities, structuring aspects, such as: rules, formality, classification, and extreme categorization, distinguishing them in detail, as they are presented in the work of ^{Kischimoto (1996}). Here they are considered as human activities that promote development, presenting many more converging than divergent elements. The biggest divergence between play and games is that the latter has more formal rules and isn't as subjective as the former. Throughout the text, both terms stand out, considering play as a specific and characteristic form of games for younger children.

Taking the idea of what games are, different types of knowledge are presented based on various theories. We highlight, for example, those adopted by ^{Brougere (2002}), ^{Kischimoto (1996}), and ^{Muniz (2010}), theorized through Piaget's perspective, in which they link games to biological and psychological factors, and are not considered specifically human activities and can foster multifaceted learning. And, in the historical-dialectical materialist conception, understanding them, above all, in the man-world relationship, as an intrinsically human specificity. The second conception, based on ^{Elkonin (2009}), is considered for its strength in understanding the psychological elements that constitute the game, referring to the historical origins and the use of games in the most different societies, being a product of human relationships in different cultures, and which has as its main characteristic the “[...] activity in which social relations are reconstructed, without direct utilitarian purposes” (^{ELKONIN, 2009}, p. 19).

We can see that in ^{Silvestre (2016}) there is a concern to characterize games in the Historical-Cultural Theory with their main characteristics. They are approximations with the art by reaching the meaning and motivations of life in its aesthetic and intellectual productions; a product of social relationships through the various representations of adult life; objects in games act as accompaniment; imagination and interaction with the game object; it is not about exercise, but about development; the presence of formal rules; and has a ludic nature. For Silvestre (2016), games are human productions, developed throughout history, which are crystallized in art through culture. So, the author understands games as a historical-cultural development made by humans. Still, it's believed that it's possible to add another important feature, the uncertainty principle. When playing, the player doesn't have confidence about what will happen during the development of the activity. Also, if the game presents many possibilities of failure or success, the subjects can lose the incentive to continue the activity. According to ^{Wallon (2007}, p. 66), “To prevent the results or manifestations of playing from being included, due to their too-high probability or their too predictable form, among the things that fit into daily life, from the beginning, chance has been a factor of it”.

So, the game can be understood as a specifically human activity. But what is an activity? The term “activity” proposed by ^{Leontiev (1983}) emphasizes that human life is a succession of activities that replace one another. Thus, throughout human development, there are three main activities, which are not unique, but which can facilitate development, those are: gaming activity in childhood, between 0 and 6 years of age; study activity, from 6 to 7 years old until the beginning of adulthood; and, finally, the work activity in the adult life. According to Leontiev (1983), there are other activities adjacent to those listed that also promote development, but these three are relevant to human life as they are determinants for the formation of the subjects' awareness and personality. About play as the main activity, Leontiev (2010, p. 122) determines how: “[...] that in connection with the most important changes in the child's psychic development takes place and within those processes which prepare the way for the child's transition to a new and higher development level”.

Play can promote the psychic development processes at a high level; it's considered to be one of the first preschoolers' activities. Even not appropriating the term or the concept of activity proposed by ^{Leontiev (1983}), ^{Wallon (1975}, 2007) describes that play can promote development, in confluence with the Soviet authors. For Wallon (2007), play can assume four categories: functional, fiction, acquisition, and fabrication.

In his categorization of play, ^{Wallon (2007}) presents four central ideas. The first categorization refers to functional play, which, in its description, seems to be related to how children play at an early age, especially in the first months of life. The three subsequent categories - fiction, acquisition, and fabrication - all show the presence of imagination, unlike the first category, which is governed by impulses related to biological factors and self-knowledge of manipulative object actions. Wallon himself (2007, p. 55) even recognizes the proximity of the last three proposed categorizations: “[...] Far from being eclipsed by fabrication games, fiction, and acquisition, in general, have a common role”.

The study by ^{Elkonin (2009}) demonstrates, in contrast to ^{Wallon (2007}), a concern with the levels of playing development. Instead of categorizing stages, the author promotes a periodization of play development in human life, listing four levels: 1) the main content is manipulative object actions, usually repetitively, about the adults' actions in their social and affective relationships with the child; 2) increased number of actions with objects that are between the real and the imaginary related to the playful satisfaction of the action, giving indications of role-playing; 3) actions motivated by the execution and representations of social relations, highlighting the rules of conduct contained in the representations to which the actions are submitted; 4) representation of actions and execution of social relations in a more elaborate way, such as a well-organized theater, whose roles are well defined and the rules very well established and fulfilled without infringing them. Although Elkonin (2009) presents development levels, these are not conditioned to specific ages but are directly related to the children's experiences, which are fundamental for the transition and passing from one level to another or the concomitance between two or more levels. The author also understands games, as ^{Leontiev (1983}) does, as principal activities, whose main content is the established social relations, mediated by the surrounding objects and human actions.

The study by Vygotsky (2008) presents play as an activity in the Leontievian perspective, interested in identifying, above all, the motives, needs, and impulses that preschool children play. For him, the motives are in the affective sphere connected to desires that cannot be immediately fulfilled. “From the point of view of the affective sphere, it seems to me that play is organized precisely in the developmental situation in which unrealizable tendencies arise” (VYGOTSKY, 2008, p. 25). As an example, the observation of a preschool child who, on a certain walk, sees policemen on horseback and wants to satisfy the desire to ride a horse. In their objective reality, the child doesn't have the possibility of riding a horse, so, upon arriving at home and remembering the scene experienced, through imagination, the child takes a broom handle and starts to play with it, making believe the broom handle is a horse. The child aims at the object, broomstick/toy, and the horse, through imagination, and performs the action of riding it and pretending to be riding, representing a reality experienced by observation.

In this type of play, the actions developed with the object/toy are not determined by the object itself, but by imagination, satisfying desires - knowing what the object is, but using it as if it were something else. “Separating the idea (word meaning) from the object is a tremendously difficult task for the child. Play is a form of transition to that” (VYGOTSKY, 2008, p. 30). For Vygotsky (2008), the child knows that the broomstick is not a horse, but, through imagination, they simulate that the object plays the role of a horse, to satisfy their desires. At that moment, an important transformation takes place in the child's thinking, as they can distinguish the social meaning of the broomstick and represent it as a horse. Thus, in play, there are two elements: action and imagination, the first being determinant for the second to happen.

As children acquire understanding and experiences, that action is no longer as necessary as before. Due to the development, children have already more elaborate imaginative situations, being able to play without performing many actions, using only their imagination. What moves imagination and actions in play are generalized unrealizable affective tendencies, with affectivity being the “engine” propelling the action of playing. “The essence of play is that it is the fulfillment of desires, not isolated desires, but generalized affections” (VYGOTSKY, 2008, p. 26). Dialectical affections are understood as generalized affections, built by the child through living and life experience, which arise with the preliminary awareness of their needs and their motives in developing certain activities.

For ^{Wallon (2007}), the reasons for the children to play are the satisfaction of desires and their needs for rest and fun, since living with adults and the surrounding environment sometimes imposes restrictions, denials and renunciations. Wallon (2007) agrees with Vygotsky's (2008) understanding, demonstrating that children become aware of the act of playing as they develop. According to Vygotsky (2008), young and preschool children are not aware of the reason why they play, they just do it, satisfying their affective desire. As they become aware, the possibilities of explaining the reasons, impulses, and needs to play increases.

As children begin to express their thoughts, the greater are the possibilities of describing the reasons and interests involved in their play, those accounts improve according to their experience. This observation is supported by Vygotsky (2017), which emphasizes the uniqueness of the subjects, reflected in their personalities. The environment can be a source of imaginative inspiration for understanding, interpreting, and appropriating the surrounding world. The environment has a great influence on the imagination. It is especially important that these imaginative actions are subordinated to rules, sometimes implicit, sometimes explicit, as defined here: “It seems to me that whenever there is an imaginary situation in the game, there is a rule. They are not rules formulated in advance and that change throughout the game, but rules that arise from the imaginary situation.” (VYGOTSKY, 2008, p. 28).

Thus, according to Vygotsky (2008) and ^{Wallon (2007}), the rules present in the activity of playing and/or gaming are possible determinants for the formation not only of the personality but also of the moral development of the subject. Games, in their fully developed form, have formal rules and involve action and imagination, which are not always motivated by generalized affections but can be a way of distracting from reality. In this aspect, Wallon (2007, p. 66) identifies that in games there is imagination through simulation and fiction and that these are present due to the difficulties of life, especially related to oppression: “Fiction is naturally part of games because they oppose to the oppression of reality”. Vygotsky (2008), in addition to showing interest in understanding the motives and needs that children have in the action of playing, perceives play as an important process for development, especially for creating a zone of imminent development.

Play is seen as an activity that boosts development. Thus, through object actions with toys and mental actions through imagination, children can simulate, create and produce different meanings. In this way, children have the opportunity to surpass themselves with each new play activity, consequently creating development zones. The development in this perspective is important to show the use of play and games in the study activity, as ^{Silvestre (2016}) argues, also expanding to the work activity. Vygotsky (2008, p. 36) states that play doesn't expire or cease to exist, but becomes a more intense activity with reality: “At school age, the play does not die, but penetrates the relationship with reality. It has its internal continuation during school instruction and everyday tasks (an activity that must have rules)”.

Thus, the reasons that lead the child to play are related to the satisfaction of generalized desires/affections, conditioned to rules, restrictions, and denials. However, games are motivated by other needs. Which, according to ^{Leontiev (2010}), are related to contradictions, conditioned to interactions with things and/or objects to which one does not have access for some reason. According to Leontiev (2010), games have a non-productive character. Due to their objective, they are not final, but actions are always taking place in an attempt to resolve contradictions. For ^{Wallon (2007}, p. 55), the subjects engage in games because they are interested in a moment of relaxation, related to leisure and recreation, giving the activity a playful character: “They reveal a degraded form of the activity, but also a state of relaxation in the exercise of psychic functions, which explains the recreational character of the game”. In this sense, the child and/or adolescent/adult who plays is conditioned to develop actions through the rules, thus characterizing the game, liable to determine constituent elements of the personality.

According to the theories of ^{Wallon (2007}), Vygotsky (2008), and ^{Leontiev (2010}), it can be said that the content of playing is imagination - conditioned to the satisfaction of generalized affections and desires. While in games, for ^{Elkonin (2009}), their content is in the imaginative representation of social relations, through the role-play and representing a playful situation, related to the recreational satisfaction of the activity.

In studies carried out by ^{Luria (1992}), a concern with the child's neurological and physiological development is evident, without forgetting or valuing the social aspect. This aspect presents the development of the acquisition of writing by the child, proposing to the teacher an intentional organization, evidencing teaching through games that have a clear and specific objective. Thus, the children are not loose in their actions but “conditioned” freedom with clear goals. For example, when developing the ability to write, or some other purpose, which may be the concept of certain knowledge needs to be achieved. According to Luria (1992), when intentionally organizing a game to reach a certain pedagogical objective, the game must elicit in the preschoolers the ability to analyze and solve previously proposed problems. The determination of the objects and elements that make up play and their imaginative representation concern the specific play activity. Supported by initial instructions, the pedagogical mediation process is very important so that children can, through play, conjecture and develop cognitive aspects. Because, being assisted, children will not act freely but will be guided through general commands to achieve the learning objective of the game through their imagination and mental abilities. In this way, children advance and create zones of imminent development, being able to carry out guided tasks that they couldn't previously do.

The game, in turn, is also capable of inducing learning in school-age children, especially as it represents the social relationships established in the surrounding environment. A relation proposed in the school is that between human beings, nature and the scientific knowledge; the latter is highly valued in school organization. School-age children play games for fun and development. According to ^{Elkonin (2009}), an activity with great psychological influence is communication through relationships with other people. That is, children play to socialize to have satisfaction and fun. As stated by Elkonin (2009, p. 513), the more elements of reality are contained in the games, the greater the influence they have on the students' learning: “[...] It is necessary to make them aware of those facets of reality whose reproduction in games can exert a positive educational influence and distract them from the reproduction of what can develop negative qualities”.

In line with the theories of Vygotsky (2008), ^{Elkonin (2009}), and ^{Luria (1992}) on the relevance of games in the process of human appropriation, ^{Leontiev (2010}) states that genuinely didactic game activities, in addition to causing the production of imminent development zones, can enable the development of cognitive psychological operations, which are essential to school activity, and can contribute to and to the organization of learning. It's necessary intentionality with a specific purpose that will subsidize playing or the games to solve a problem concerning the relations that the man establishes with the scientific knowledge, making possible the learning. ^{Barbosa (1997}), when approaching the concepts created in a socio-historical-dialectical perspective, perceives the relevance of the political influence of the teachers when intentionally organizing how they'll teach, in the sense of working with students on the construction of consciousness, through various activities, so games are relevant to this process. Barbosa (1997) believes that, through play, children - students - can learn to lose, to win, to condition themselves to the will of the other, and to identify whether or not they belong to a certain group. For the author, “[...] when playing, the child can also appropriate knowledge and school contents, using them as mediators of their logical and analogical thinking” (^{BARBOSA, 1997}, p. 140). Thus, games as intentional teaching resources can provide purposes for children's learning and they can, in turn, appropriate school knowledge.

Such theoretical support can enable the training process of teaching work, especially in the development of learning in early childhood education. In this phase, the concepts of play and games are constantly present in the pedagogical practice. Considering the progress of teachers' commitment to an efficient training that provides students with quality education, as presented by ^{Fonseca, Colares e Costa (2019}).

Going back to the proposed research question, Table 2 lists the theorizations in syntheses of the main definitions of play and games.

The authors agree that play and games promote human development, especially when mediated. Playing and games offer fundamental elements to human experience, and are considered capable of shaping personality, promoting psychological changes and transformations, in addition to inducing and developing imagination and other mental processes. Caracteriza-se, assim, a brincadeira/jogo como um So play and games are relevant teaching resources. The dialectical relationships developed by the authors ^{Elkonin (2009}), Vygotsky (1996, 2008, 2017), ^{Leontiev (1983}, 2010), ^{Luria (1992}, 2010), and ^{Wallon (1975}, 2007) on play and games point out evidence of the man-world relationship, which, in itself, is already historical, taking into account the actions of consciousness through human thought. Through their theories, we can understand the category of totality characterized mainly by human development, as they show in their studies psychological transformations through the development of the game activity.

4 Final considerations

The authors highlighted are concerned with understanding the particularities in constant transformations regarding the needs and reasons that the subjects develop in the action of playing. At this point, stands out the category of contradiction between the authors Vygotsky, Leontiev, and Luria. This is due to the need to perform or satisfy their generalized affections, which is in line with the theoretical perspective adopted by Elkonin, adding that subjects play and game establishing bonds with the social reality of the surrounding environment. Thus, emphasizing that the game is an activity in which social relations are reproduced, with emphasis on the role-playing game.

Wallon, in turn, highlights the reasons in the oppressive reality full of rejection and resignations. Thus, trying to satisfy themselves in the game activity, characterized by the principle of uncertainty and playfulness as a form of rest and fun. Even if they have contradictions in their theories, there is an approximation by going through different paths to reach the same point, which is the determination to respond to the reason why the subjects develop the game activity. Therefore, analyzing the theories listed in the needs and reasons, for the subjects to develop the game through mental (and/or object) actions, which stimulate the imagination, which vary according to the subjects' experience, highlighting the sociocultural factor.

Vygotsky, Leontiev, and Luria highlight the social perspective of game activities, and Elkonin points to the periodization of game development, agreeing with Wallon in categorizing play into stages. Thus, they describe the games developed by the young child, when manipulating objects and performing repetitive movements in children's first games. Thus, relating the biological factor of formation and constitution for a development in which it is possible to reflect on the game activity. On this point, all authors agree, as the first group emphasizes that, at school age, there are better possibilities for development. Thus, games are activities that promote the development of subjects, are relevant in the teaching process, and can be useful as a resource in the organization of teaching work.