USING VIRTUAL WORLDS TO DEVELOP THINKING IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

During the first seven years of his life, the child receives a huge amount of knowledge about the world around him. The development of the child's thinking during this period and the results of his knowledge of the world around him affect the further educational activities of the preschooler. Thanks to the development of thinking, a child is able to imagine an image of an object and its properties in the absence of the object itself, based only on previously received information. In a child in the early and preschool years of life, game is the main activity for forming a personality. Didactic games facilitate the process of all-round development of children. Various tasks solved in didactic games are presented for children in an interesting and attractive form of activity. In a computer game, using simulation, it becomes possible to demonstrate objects and phenomena that are inaccessible to a child in the real world. The use of didactic computer games not only increases the preschooler's motivation to learn new material, but also contributes to the development of thinking. An educational computer game acts as a mentor for a child. However, the lack of communication with a living, and not virtual, mentor causes a negative effect both on the development of the child's speech and the formation of his communicative abilities. Therefore, a computer game cannot be perceived as a complete alternative to the classical means of teaching and educating preschoolers.