THE INFLUENCE OF MODERN EDUCATIONAL GAMES ON PRESCHOOL CHILDREN’S GAME COMPETENCE FORMATION

Abstract

The article reveals the peculiarities of preschool children’s game competence formation. Educational games have been identified as one of the effective ways to increase the level of game competence formation. Educational games meet preschoolers’ natural needs and combine elements of learning, applied, reproductive and creative activities, which makes it possible to develop the child’s emotional sphere, cognitive interests, intellectual and spiritual needs, and creativity.Educational games are defined as a set of games of various types by the authors. They have the following common characteristics: they contain a task that needs to be solved, necessarily accompanied by written, oral, pictorial, and drawing instructions; compliance by teachers or parents with the principles of accessibility, systematicity, and consistency; taking into account the child's individual and maximum capabilities; providing a free, creative atmosphere; lack of hints in solving tasks, to form responsibility and independence; providing educational space and time for creative problem solving; encouragement to complete a difficult task and enjoy the result, which has a real material display.A pedagogical experiment was conducted to determine the impact of educational games on the level of preschool children's game competence development. Thirty children of older preschool age participated in the experiment, divided into experimental and control groups. At the ascertainment stage of the experimental study, to determine the level of preschool children’s game competence, indicators and criteria for preschool children’s game competence were determined. When determining the criteria and indicators, we focused on the Basic component of preschool education, namely the educational direction “Child’s Game”. We defined motivational, activity, and cognitive criteria and their indicators. Based on selected criteria and indicators, we substantiated the levels of older preschool children’s game competence formation: high, medium, and low. At the formative stage, a system of educational games was implemented in the experimental group. The control experiment data showed that the use of educational games in working with preschool children contributes to the positive dynamics of the growth of the level of the formation of game competence, and has a positive effect on the preschool children’s comprehensive development.