A STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF PLAY-BASED SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING ON SOCIAL SKILLS OF SIX-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN

This study aimed to establish whether a Play Based Social Skills Training Program is effective on the social skills of six-year-old children attending preschools. The study was designed as a pretest-posttest-retention test control group experimental study. The study population consisted of normally-developing six-year-old (60-72 months) 96 children (experimental:48; control:48) who were attending the preschools of primary schools located in Qankui. The Play Based Social Skills Training Program was applied to the experimental group three times a week for a period of eight weeks. When the Play Based Social Skills Training Program was not implemented, experimental group children continued their regular preschool education together with the control group children. Data for the research was collected via the "Family Information Form" and "Social Skills Scale" developed by Acun Kapikiran et al. (2006). Data were analyzed using covariance analysis with one factor and a t test. A difference of (p<0,001) between the social skill point averages of children in the experimental and control groups was regarded as significant. We found that the difference between the point averages of the post and retention tests was not statistically significant (p>0,05) and the effects of the Play Based Social Skills Training Program was still continuing.