Language structures of the 6-7 year-old children in stories made from pictures

The general objective of this research is to find an answer to the question ofwhether the adjectives, adverbs, noun phrases and adjective phrases, 6-year olds whoattend pre-schools and 7-year olds in the first year of primary school use in stories theytell based on the pictures they do in free painting studies, differ in terms of age, sex andsocio-economic levels. The sample of the research is made of 36 (18 girls and 18 boys)from pre-school and 36 (18 girls and 18 boys) from the first year of the primary schooland totally 72 children. The study was conducted on students individually and in a quietroom in order for the students not to be affected by one another. In the practicedimension of the research, each child taken to the room was asked to paint freely.At the end of the research it was seen that girls in the sample group usedadjectives more than the boys. When the adjectives in the stories were examined interms of age variable, it was seen that 7-year old children used adjectives more than the6-year olds. In addition, in terms of the socio-economic level variable, there was nodifference among the children from lower, middle and upper socio-economic levels inthe use of adjectives. When adverb use of children and sex variable were examined, itwas concluded that boys used adverbs more than the girls. When the adverbs in thestories were examined in terms of age variable, it was seen that 6-year old children usedadverbs more than the 7-year olds. However, from a socio-economic level variable itwas seen that children of upper socio-economic level used them more. When thedifference between the use of noun phrase and sentence structure of children and sexwere examined, no difference was found between girls and boys. When the use of bothnoun phrase and sentence structures of children in stories was examined in terms of agevariable, it was seen that 7-year-old children used them more than the 6-year oldchildren. When the use of noun phrase and sentence structures was examined in termsof socio-economic level variable, it was seen that children in the upper socio-economiclevel used them more.KEY WORDSChild, language develoment, pre-school education, primary education, story, picture.