ANASINIFI VE İLKOKUL BİRİNCİ SINIFA DEVAM EDEN ÇOCUKLARIN SOSYAL BECERİ GELİŞİMLERİNİN İNCELENMESİ

The aim of this study is to examine the social skills development of kindergarten and elementary school children. The research is a descriptive study in which the scanning model is used. The sample of the study consists of 294 children from the kindergarten and first grade classes of six elementary schools in Muş Province National Education Directorate. "Social Skills Rating System Elementary Teacher Form”, which was developed by Gresham and Elliott (1990), has been used with the aim of collecting data. As a result, it has been found that there isn’t a significant difference between the social skill points of the children between 60-72 months old who attend kindergarten and first grade classes. Moreover, a significant difference between the social skill scores of kindergarten and first grade class children who are 73 months old or more could not be determined. The majority of children (65%) were determined to be at a moderate level of social skills. The Introduction and the Aim of the Study: Social skills are the skills which should be imparted to children at an early age and which are necessary life-long. These skills are necessary for social harmony and for the socialization of the individual. If the social harmony and a healthy socialization of the individual are provided, then social problems may decrease. If the children are supported socially and emotionally during pre-school period and during the other periods of school life, it can ensure the children to grow up as more cohesive and self-esteem individuals in the following years. Students who can study in cooperation and who are sufficient both socially and emotionally are expected to be more successful academically (Rocha-Decker, 2004; Seven, 2006). Having social skills takes an important place in every field of life. Early childhood stage is one of the stages which requires these skills a lot. Social competency of the child in this period affects the child’s social and academical competency in the future (Bülbül, 2008). If positive features of the individual such as being honest, trustworthy and helpful or his negative features such as being selfish, inconsistent, liar, trickster and coward become a part of his individuality, then these are the results of socialization process (Cerrahoğlu, 2002; Kapıkıran, Bora İvrendi and Adak, 2005). Given this information, it can be understood how important it is to gain social skills at early childhood. Starting from here, in this research, it is aimed to examine social skill development of the children who attend kindergarten and first grade classes. Method: The sample of this study, which is a descriptive study in scanning model, consists of 294 children from the kindergarten and first grade classes of six elementary schools in Muş Province National Education Directorate in the education year of 2012-2013. 124 of these children are kindergarten students and 170 are first grade students. As the means of collecting data, "Social Skills Rating System Elementary Teacher Form" has been used with the aim of determining the social skills of the children. It has been translated into Turkish by Seven (2006). The scale consists of three subscales and total 30 items. While "Cooperation" and "Self-Control" subscales consist of 9 items, "Assertiveness" subscale consists of 12 items. The scale is a trio Likert-type one. Each item has been rated as "Never" (1 point), "Sometimes" (2 points) and "very often" (3 points). The highest point that can be taken from the scale is 90 and the lowest is 30. In the analysis of data; descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage and arithmetic mean and also Mann-Whitney U Test have been used. For all SSRS/E-TF Social Skill section Alpha value is .94, for Cooperation factor the value is .93, for Self-Control factor the value is .86 and for the Assertiveness factor the value is .83. In this study in order to determine the reliability of the scale for the children in Muş Province, Alpha Cronbach test values have been found as .89 for Cooperation factor, .86 for Self-Control factor, .91 for Assertiveness factor and .94 for the total. Results and Discussion: According to the study results, despite the fact that there isn’t a significant difference (p>.05) between the social skill points of the children between 60-72 months old who attend kindergarten and first grade classes, it can be seen that the social skill points of the children between 60-72 months old who attend kindergarten are higher than the social skill points of the children between 60-72 months old who attend first grade classes. Moreover, although there isn’t a significant difference (p>.05) between the social skill scores of kindergarten and first grade class children who are 73 months old or more, it can be seen that the social skill points of the children who are 73 months old or more and who attend kindergarten are higher than the social skill points of the children who are 73 months old or more and who attend first grade classes. These results show that, in this study, the class factor isn’t effective on the social skill levels of the children who attend kindergarten and first grade classes. The fact that there isn’t statistically a difference between the social skill levels of the children who attend kindergarten and first grade classes may result from children’s showing similar developmental features in both levels or may result from their schools’ or families’ having similar educational features. However, families and teachers expect a higher level of social skills from the children who attend primary school. While looking to another result of the study, we can see that both children who are 60-72 months old (%66,5) and children who are 73 months old or more (%63,3) have similar social skill levels. It can be said that most of the children (%65) have Average social skill levels. Getting 83-90 points from Social Skills Rating System Elementary Teacher Form shows a high social skill level, getting 60-82 shows an average social skill level and getting 30-59 shows a low social skill level. In a research done with the same sample group by İnci (2014), it can be seen that nearly half of the children (%45,6) are the first child of the family, more than half of the children (%77,9) have 2-4 brothers or sisters and most of the children (%83,3) have an elementary family. Moreover, it has been emphasized that nearly half of the mothers (%48,3) are lettered or elementary school graduates, most of the mothers (%85,4) doesn’t have a job, nearly half of the fathers (%40,1) are high school graduates and nearly half of the fathers (46,9) are civil servants. In this study, it can be seen that the children in the study group and their families have similar features. The fact that most of the children who are 60-72 months old and who are 73 months old or more have similar social skill levels may be related to children’s and families’ having such similar features. Conclusion and Suggestions: As a result of this study which examines the social skill points of the children who attend kindergarten and first grade classes, it has been found that there isn’t a significant difference between the social skill points of the children between 60-72 months old who attend kindergarten and first grade classes. Moreover, a significant difference between the social skill scores of kindergarten and first grade class children who are 73 months old or more could not be determined. It can be said that most of the children (%65) have Average social skill levels. The following suggestions can be made on the results of the study. While considering the fact that the child’s showing a healthy social progress can positively affect other developmental fields mainly the emotional progress, it can be said that families and pre-school teachers have prominent significance to support the child who starts to gain social skills in the first years of the life. Therefore, parents and teachers, primarily as true role models and by showing consistent behaviors, must support the children to develop true social skills. In addition to this, ensuring an appropriate social environment in which the children develop social skills and doing more activities for social-emotional developments of the children as well as cognitive development in the schools are very important.