The Social Skills of Children and the Contents They Watch: Reflections of the Pandemic Process

Abstract

The preschool period is the period when the child's social skills develop. During this period, the child adapts to a new environment, makes friends, develops communication skills and acquires the requirements of the social environment. These social skills that children are expected to gain from the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) epidemic have been adversely affected. Due to the increase in the rate of transmission of the virus in social and common living areas, the continuation of education in educational environments was restricted and the form of education was determined as distance education. The use of technological tools has also increased considerably in the distance education process applied during the pandemic process. In this context, the aim of the study is to examine the reflection of the content that children watch/use during the pandemic process on their social skills in line with family views. Qualitative survey model and phenomenology design were preferred in the research. The study group consists of 25 parents who live in Şırnak province and whose child receives preschool education (distance, face to face, sometime remotely, sometime face to face) determined by easily accessible situation sampling. The data of the research were collected through interviews and analyzed with descriptive and content analysis techniques. In the study, six themes were determined in line with the opinions of the participants and the research questions: "Demographic characteristics", "Screen time", "Technological tools used", "Platforms used", "Contents watched/used", "Reflection of content on social skills". As a result, it was concluded that the separation of children from education and friend environment during the pandemic period caused an increase in the use of technology and negatively affected their social skills.