GUSTYNOV ADHY SEVERO, 2023. Development of Cognitive Ability in Early Childern Through Virtual Reality-Based Animal Recognition Educative Games, Diploma III Study Program Informatics Engineering, Vocational School, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta.

Cognitive ability is a form of development that refers to the ability to derive knowledge from experience and information. Cognitive abilities are actually more than just learning information, but the ability to think about new information, process it, talk about it, and apply this new information to other information previously obtained.

Animal introduction can be a medium for developing cognitive abilities in children because it provides visual and sensory stimulation, improves memory through learning names, animal characteristics, and develops speaking skills. Through animal recognition, children can gain a scientific understanding of the environment and build problem-solving skills.

However, media for developing cognitive abilities in children in general are still presented in the form of pictures and videos that are two-dimensional and monotonous, so that they have the potential to reduce children's interest in learning and limit children's cognitive development.

Based on the problems above, the authors propose a media in the form of a virtual reality-based animal recognition application with the name of the application "Anima Safari", the application is used as education and innovation in media for developing cognitive abilities in early childhood.