Analysing the correlation between temperament characteristics, receptive language skills and attention skills of children at pre-school period

The aim of this study is to examine the correlation between attention and receptive language skills of pre-sechool children who differ from each other based on their temperament characteristics. In the direction of the aim of this research, the relations hip between temperament, receptive language skills and attention skills are planned to be focused open.The target population of the research is composed of preschoolers from three different private pre-schools in Istanbul which belong to the Ministry of Education. The research sample is consisted of 90 children at the age group of 5-6 who maintain their education at these schools.In order to nd out pre-school children's temperament characteristics, the Short Temperament Scale for Children, which is developed by Prior, Sanson and Oberklaid (1989) and adapted in Turkish by Yağmurlu and Sanson (2009), is used in the research. Attention skills of children are measured by the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test. For measuring the receptive language skills, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test is used. This research is designed as a 'screening model'. The data obtained from this research are analyzed by means of utilizing SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) 21.0 program. Descriptive statistical methods (number, percent, mean, standard deviation) are used while evaluating the data. For the dependent and age variables used in the research; correlation analysis, independent sample t-test for two state variables i.e. gender and age, dependent sample t-test for age and receptive language age, two-way analysis of variance in order to examine the combined effects to the points of rhythmicity size of gender and age variables and regression analysis for the predictors of error counts of Bender Gestalt Visual Motor Perception Test and receptive language age are carried out.According to the obtained results, it is determined that there is a correlation at moderate level and negative direction between receptive language age and attention skills (inverse proportion). In other words, the number of errors taken from the attention test decreases as the receptive language age increases. Besides, it is determined that there is a correlation at negative direction and moderate level between the number of errors taken from Bender Gestalt Visual Motor Perception Test and perseverance dimension score from temperament dimensions. That is to say, as there is an increase at the score of perseverance dimension, there is a decrease in the number of errors of Bender Gestalt Visual Motor Perception Test.The obtained results from the research are discussed within the framework of the literatüre.