Examination of 60-72 months-oldpreschool period children's self-regulation skills in the process of social participation activities supported with space location perception

In this study, convergent parallel mixed method design was used in order to examine the self-regulation skills of 60-72 month-old preschool children during the process of socially involved play activities supported by spatial location perception. In the 2021-2022 academic year, 18 children aged 60-72 months who continue their education in an official kindergarten affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the city center of Kütahya were taken into the sample. In the research, data were collected using the 'Rating Key', 'Demographic Information Form' and 'Class Observation Form'. The descriptive analysis method was used while the activities were examined under the subcategories of self-regulation skills, metacognitive regulation, behavioral regulation, emotional and motivational regulation skills, and spatial location perception. Mann Whitney U analysis was used to analyze the scores obtained from the sub-categories of self-regulation skills according to the gender variable. Spearman correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between self-regulation skills, metacognitive regulation, behavioral regulation, and emotional and motivational regulation skills. In line with the information obtained from the research, it was observed that the children exhibited behaviors related to self-regulation skills and spatial location perception in activities. Among the observed sub-categories of self-regulation skills, the behaviors towards metacognitive regulation skills at most and emotional and motivational regulation skills at least were encountered. Observed behaviors regarding spatial location perception were mostly observed in activities that included simple sketch and map reading exercises. It was found that the scores obtained from the sub-categories of self-regulation skills were in favor of male students. It was found that there was a high and significant correlation between the sub-categories of self-regulation skills. Keywords: Perception of Space Position, Pre-School Education, Self Regulation