A Case study upon examination of family perceptions of 60 - 72 months pre - school children

The family is the nearest institution in the process preschool term when the children discover their environment. This small unit is very important for children during this period, because in this period the basic habits are learnt and learning process is so intense. Therefore, children knowing the perception of family is one of the useful factors on children's healthy raising in terms of pre-school education. In this study, how 60-72 month old children's thoughts and perceptions regarding their families become different according to their gender, sibling status, parents' education level, family structure and the year of his/her preschool education institution, is investigated by trying to reveal the relationship between the drawings and attributed meanings. The research is a qualitative case and is carried out by the method of case study. The sample of the study is composed of 40 pre-school children studying in three preschool education institutions in Trabzon in 2014-2015 academic years. The data of the research is obtained from semistructured interviews with parents and children' 'family subject drawings'. As the obtained data is analyzed, a conclusion is reached: the family perception of those are better; girls compared to boys, children with siblings compared to children with no siblings, the children whose parents 'level of education is higher or more compared to children whose parent's level of education is primary school, the children who have their all family members full and alive compared to children whose families are broken up and children on their first year in the preschool education institution compared to children in second or more years. Keywords: Family drawing, perception of family, pre-school term.