Traditional children's games 60-72 months research of the effect on the social skills of children

The aim of this study; was to investigate the effects of traditional children's games on the social skills of preschool children between the ages of 60-72 months. The sample includes 60-72 month-old children who are enrolled in preschool education programs at the kindergartens situated in Aksaray city center. The study group consists of 68 children from 4 different kindergartens located in the center of Aksaray, who are attending preschool education. The study utilized quantitative data collection instruments to investigate the effects of traditional children's games, employing a semi-experimental design. The universe represents the general group or or population that the study focuses on. In this study, "The Preschool Social Skills Assessment Scale (PSSAS) teacher form developed by Ömeroğlu et al. (2014) was utilized as the data collection. Before analyzing the data, a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was conducted to measure its distribution, and the results indicated that the data did not conform to a normal distribution. While Mann-Whitney U Test was used to compare two independent groups, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test was used to compare two related groups with time-dependent measurements. Results of the study indicate a statistically significant difference in the social competence levels of children participating in traditional children's games activity, favoring the experimental group, based on their pre-test and post-test scores. There was no significant difference detected in the pre-and post-tests conducted based on gender factor, however a significant difference was observed between the pre-and post-test scores of the control group children who participated in the preschool education program. This study has concluded that traditional children's games have a noteworthy impact on the social development pf preschool children (60-72 months old) as evidenced by differences observed between experimental and control groups. According to the research, conventional kids' games are beneficial for children's social development and play a crucial role in improving these competencies. Including traditional children's games in educational programs in a more organized manner could contribute to the formation of a society with stronger social cohesion.