Psychological counseling and guidance services in pre-school education

The purpose of this research is the determination of the existing and needed psychological counseling and guidance services within the framework of the opinions of the psychological counselors, teachers and parents in pre-school education. The interview technique was used in the study, which was in the qualitative research design It consists of 15 psychological counselors who work-have worked in private kindergartens, official kindergartens and independent kindergartens affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the central districts of Kırşehir province, and 30 teachers from among the teachers working in these schools, and 30 parents whose children study in these schools. The study was carried out on a voluntary basis. In the research, "Semi-Structured Interview Form", which was created separately by the researcher for psychological counselors, preschool teachers and parents, was used as data collection tool. In this context, data were collected by conducting interviews with the participants on a voluntary basis. The audio recordings taken at the end of the interviews were deciphered in detail by the researcher, and the views of the participants were conveyed without changing. The data obtained in the research were analyzed by content analysis method. By examining the opinions of psychological counselors, preschool teachers and parents, themes such as educational guidance, personal-social guidance and vocational guidance needs were formed and codes were evaluated within the scope of psychological counseling and guidance needs The findings obtained from the research were classified as activities carried out within the scope of psychological counseling and guidance services in pre-school education and psychological counseling and guidance needs according to the answers given by the psychological counselors, preschool teachers and parents. According to the findings obtained from the teachers, it was concluded that psychological counseling and guidance needs focused on academic support and consultation in the field of educational guidance, individual guidance and developmental support in the field of personal-social guidance, and child-oriented activities and family-oriented activities in the field of vocational guidance. According to the findings obtained from the psychological counselors, it was seen that family guidance was needed in the field of personal-social guidance in addition to the needs stated by the preschool teacher. Finally, in the findings obtained from the parents, it was concluded that academic support in the field of educational guidance; individual guidance and developmental support in the theme of personal-social guidance; it has been concluded that there is a need for vocational promotion activities in the theme of vocational guidance. Based on the results obtained from the research, psychological counseling and guidance activities for children and families can be planned in line with educational guidance, personal-social guidance and vocational guidance needs. Keywords: Pre-school education, preschool teacher, psychological counseling and guidance needs, psychological counselor.