A study into the effect of the program of readiness education on the skills of pri?nt awareness of 6 year-old group attending to a kindergarten, on phonological awareness at the first class of primary education and on reading-writing skills

The main purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of Educational Program of Preparation for Reading and Writing (EPPRW) on the print awareness of children, on their phonological awareness and the level of reading -writing skills levels. In the research; the techniques of pre-test, past-test, a semi-experimental design with a control group were used. In order to assess the effect of the education given to the children in the test group pre-test, last test and follow up studies were carried out in the research. The working group of the study consisted of 6 year-of-age children attending to kindergartens acting under the Ministry of Education in the central town of Çankaya, the city of Ankara, and 58 children, 14 girls and 15 boys in the test group, 14 girls, 15 boys in the control group included in the study. In the current study, test group was applied Educational Program of Preparation for Reading and Writing (EPPRW) for 9 weeks. Control group was not given anything for 9 weeks after pre-test was applied and at the end of this period last test was applied. In order to determine the efficiency of Educational Program of Preparation for Reading and Writing (EPPRW) applied to children in the test and control group when they vii started school, the tests were applied at the beginning and middle of the first term of the primary school for the purpose of following up. In order to collect general data about the children in the research, personal information form was used; to equalize the test and control groups in the sampling and assess the efficiency of the applied program, "Preschool Word and Print Awareness Assessment" developed by Justice and Ezel (2001) was used; and "Gazi Evaluation Instrument of Early Childhood Development (GEIECD) developed by Temel, Ersoy, Avcı and Turla (1997) was used to equalize the test and control groups. "Preschool Word and Print Awareness Assessment" developed by Justice and Ezel (2001) was used in the evaluations of pre and last tests at the dimension of kindergarten. In the follow up study, "Marmara Scale of Preparedness for Primary Education" developed by Polat (2003); "Phonological Awareness Scale" developed by Yangın, Erdoğan and Erdoğan (2008) were used at the beginning of the first term, at the dimension of primary education. For second follow up study, "Writing Skill Scale" developed by Erdoğan (2009); "Observation Form of Mechanical Reading Skill" developed by Acat (1996) and "The Scale of Understanding What is Read" developed by Erdoğan (2009) were used in the middle of the term. In the statistical analysis of the data, the effect of (EPPRW) on the writing awareness of the children was examined through "Mixed Design Anova" statistical results, while ?Independent Sampling t-test" was used in order to compare the scores of the children they took from the test for the follow up studies of test and control groups. At the end of the Educational Program of Preparation of Reading and Writing, in terms of the mean scores of ?The Evaluation Instrument of Word and Writing Awareness? for the children in the test group; pretest and last test scores were found significantly high (p<.001). The rank means of the last test scores of ?The Evaluation Instrument of Word and Writing Awareness? Mean scores for test group children 28.10 and last test mean scores of those in the control group was 15.14. Depending on these findings, it was found that the last test scores of ?The Evaluation Instrument of Word and Print Awareness? for the children in the test group was significantly high compared to those of pretest (p<.001). It is believed that this increase was due to the effect of Educational Program of Preparation for Reading and Writing. viii As for the follow-up test mean scores of test and control groups, mean scores of the test group in the follow-up tests were high. Depending on this finding, it was found that the preparatory education of reading and writing given to children had a positive effect on children?s total mean scores of ?Phonological Awareness Scale?. The followup test scores of ?Phonological Awareness Test? word, counting, rhyme, starting with the same sound, spelling and ending with the same sound sub-dimensions for the children in the test group were significantly high (p<0.05). Upon the examination of the follow-up test mean scores of the children in the test and control group, it was found that mean scores of test group in the follow-up tests were higher. Therefore, the preparatory education of reading and writing given to children in the test group had a positive effect on total mean scores of ?Marmara Scale of Preparedness for Primary Education?. It was found that the follow-up test scores of ?Marmara Scale of Preparedness for Primary Education? skill and development subdimensions for the children in the test group were significantly higher (p<0.05). Upon the examination of the follow-up test mean scores of the children in the test and control group, it was found that mean scores of test group in the follow-up tests were higher. Therefore, the preparatory education of reading and writing given to children in the test group had a positive effect on total mean scores of ?Reading-Writing Tests? (Writing Skill Scale, Mechanical Reading Skill Observation Form, the Scale of Understanding What is Read). ?. It was found that the follow-up test scores of ?Reading?Writing? mechanical reading, writing clauses and understanding what is read sub-dimensions for the children in the control group were significantly higher (p<0.05). Depending on the findings of the research, it was found that the Educational Program of Preparation for Reading and Writing had a positive effect on the writing awareness, word awareness, phonological awareness and reading-writing skills of children. Keywords: Print Awareness, Phonological Awareness