Preschool Period 5-Year-Old Children s Metaphorical Perceptions of Friends

In the preschool period, children need to communicate with their friends as well as family members. During this period, it is very important for children to communicate with their friends for their development. There are many factors that affect children's communication with their friends. One of these may be children's perceptions of friends. . For this reason, the study aimed to investigate the metaphorical perceptions of preschool 5-year-old children regarding friends. The study group of the research consists of 20 5-year-old children attending a kindergarten of the Ministry of Education. Data were collected using using a personal information form developed by the researchers. "A friend is like….. because…..", which questions children's perceptions of friends. In addition, in order to determine children's perceptions of friends in more detail, the children were asked, respectively, “I think a good friend is ………….” They were asked to complete the statement "should be" and the statement "I like doing ……………with my friends the most". The data were analyzed using the content analysis technique. As a result of the research, children stated a total of 17 metaphors regarding the concept of friend. However the most common metaphor said by children was in the object category. The metaphor that children repeat most is the metaphor of goodness (f = 4), which is in the values category. When the answers to the statement "I think a good friend should be ............" were analysed, it was seen that the children mostly responded as "behaving nicely", giving gifts, and sharing toys, respectively. To the statement "I like to do ........ with my friends", the children mostly answered as painting, playing hide and seek and playing house, respectively