Investigation of the effects of children's empathic perspective on peer acceptance and communication with teachers

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of preschool children's empathic perspective taking skills on their relationship with teachers and the level of peer acceptance. The study is based on empathy, peer acceptance and student-teacher relationships. Because these factors play an important role in social-emotional harmony, healthy relations, positive attitudes towards school and learning. The research was conducted with children (48-60 months age group) and their teachers in six preschools in Kars. The research conducted of two stages. Sociometric test was applied to the children in the first stage and scenarios of empathy perspective taking and STRS (Student-Teacher Relationship Scale) was applied in the second stage. The data are analyzed with SPSS package program. As a result of this analysis, it was found that the skills of pre-school children's empathic perspective taking had effect on their relationship with their teachers and their preference by their friends. It has been observed that children who have positive results from sociometric test and who have high acceptance rate by their peers can establish close relations with their teachers and express themselves better from other children. Children who can understand the scenarios of empathic perspective taking and read between the lines of the stories in the pictures are found to have good relations with their friends and they are accepted by peers in the classroom. It is thought that children who have the ability of emphatic perspective taking in preschool can solve interpersonal problems more easily, communicate better with people around them, realize their emotions more easily and transfer them to the other people. As a result, high level of empathy skills of children increased their peer acceptance in the classroom, facilitated their adaptation to the class and improved the quality of their communication with their teachers.