The contribution of board games on cognitive areas and game behaviour of 60-66 months children

Games have an important place in a child's life during childhood, when cognitive skills are shaped and developed. During this period, children interact with family, school and peers mostly through games. From this perspective, games have an important place in children's lives in this period. Since board games contain educational elements, children aged 60-66 months playing with board games positively affects their cognitive development. The effect of board games on the cognitive development areas of 60-66 month old children was discussed within the scope of this research. The study group consists of 10 students aged 60-66 months who attend a pre-school education institution of a private foundation affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in Istanbul. Ten students participating in the application played three different board games for six weeks, each game for two weeks, during the fall semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. This research, which investigates the perceptions of students, parents and teachers, was designed with phenomenology, one of the qualitative research methods. In the study, a semi-structured interview form was used as a data collection tool to determine the demographic information of children, and a structured observation form was used to determine the cognitive activities of preschool children. The data obtained was analyzed with the descriptive analysis technique. As a result of the analysis; three main findings were reached: students' cognitive development perceptions of board games, parents' definitions of their game perceptions and experiences for their 60-66 month old children, and observation form analyzes of the cognitive development levels of 60-66 month old students from the teacher's perspective. As a result of the analysis, three basic findings covering the research were reached. It has been observed that students' attention spans have increased, their processing speed has increased, their balance skills have improved, and their behaviors such as waiting for turns, congratulations, and managing their sadness when they lose have improved. In the research, suggestions were made for students, parents and teachers to learn about box games and to provide education and free materials at all levels, and to diversify and increase the research on box games.