Prevention of junior schoolchildren's excessive focus on computer gaming

The article considers the theoretical foundations of the problem of correlation between passion for computer games and junior schoolchildren's school performance. The causes and peculiarities of the manifestation of excessive focus on computer gaming in the younger school age are marked out: satisfaction of the unconscious cognitive need in the process of the game; absence or lack of communication and confidential emotional relationships in the family; lack of the child's hobbies and interests not related to the computer; the child's lack of interaction skills in the social environment. The social and psychological nature of excessive focus on computer gaming is revealed. The authors offer the methodological bases to study the influence of excessive focus on computer gaming on school performance of junior schoolchildren. The organizational stages of the experimental research are described, the diagnostic program and the program for the prevention of negative influence of computer games on junior schoolchild's school performance are considered. The description and analysis of the results of an experimental study of computer game addiction in junior schoolchildren and the program for preventing the negative impact of computer games on academic performance are given. The authors confirmed the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the genre of computer games and school performance of junior schoolchild who plays the game. The analysis of the carried out preventive work results identified a positive dynamics of the schoolchildren's school performance, which confirmed the effectiveness of using the preventive program proposed by the authors.