Views of pre-school teachers on applications supporting children's emotion regulation skills

It was aimed in this researched to reveal the views of pre-school teachers on applications supporting children's emotion regulation skills. The study is a qualitative research and views of the teachers were taken through the semi-structured interview. When determining the participants, maximum variation sampling method from purposeful sampling methods was used. The semi-structured interviews were executed with 28 teachers determined through maximum variation sampling. Data received from interviews were analyzed using Nvivo 11 data analysis package. It was determined in the study that pre-school teachers usually define emotion regulation term as getting emotion under control or as expressing emotions. They emphasized that pre-school period is critical for acquiring emotion regulation skills and that family, teachers and the media has an effect on the development of these skills. Most of the teachers stated that children's emotion regulation skills develop in certain stages in relation to age. They also stated that children have difficulty in acquiring the skill of understanding others' emotions because of their being egocentric. They expressed that they encountered anger and happiness more frequently. And it was especially difficult for teachers and students to cope with anger. They reflected that there was a decline in negative emotion reactions after applications that were executed and students expressed themselves and their emotions using more accurate language. Most of the teachers expressed that they made use of drama, conversation, question and answer, empathy, sedating, respite and painting works methods for children to develop the skill of to understand their own emotion and others' emotions, to express their feelings and to cope with their emotions. They said they used emotion cards and puppets as materials. All of them stated that they got parents' support for the sustainability of applications of developing children's emotion regulation skills and overcome the difficulties. They suggested as the solution for developing children's emotion regulation skills that pre-school teacher and counseling service work with parents; that emotion regulation be included in undergraduate education curriculum; that projects related to emotion regulation education be executed at schools; that a booklet of emotion regulation applications be prepared; that skills and indicators related to emotion regulation applications be richened in pre-school education program; that physical conditions at schools be improved and class sizes be reduced. In short, it was seen that most teachers comprehend emotion regulation concept in a limited way and they feel certain drawbacks because of this. Keywords: Pre-school period, Pre-school Education Program, Emotion, Emotion Regulation, Development of Emotion Regulation Skills.