"FOSTERING IMAGINATION AND CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD THROUGH THE USE OF PICTURE BOOKS."

The preschool period is considered a stage of rapid development in children’s thinking, speech, and creative potential. During this time, children’s imagination expands, figurative thinking begins to form, and elements of creativity start to emerge. Picture books serve as an important pedagogical tool in developing children’s visual perception and artistic thinking.As psychologist Lev Vygotsky emphasized, a child’s development occurs through social interaction and cultural tools. Picture books, as one of such cultural tools, help expand children’s zone of proximal development.