English

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between communication skills, social competence and emotion regulation skills of preschool children. Children attending public primary schools who were 53 to 80 months old from the middle socio-economic class were chosen randomly from Istanbul City center districts for this study. They were 426 children. The average age of the children was 68.91 months. One of the three data collection tools was “Communication Skills Scale for 5 to 6 Years Old Children” with 4 subscales developed by Onder, DaAŸal and AžallA±. The internal consistency of the scale (Communication Skills Scale for 5 to 6 Years Old Children) was .98. The second data collection tool was named SCBE-30, which evaluates symptoms of problems and quantity of social skills of preschool children, consists of 30 items and has three subscales. The internal consistency of the social competence scale was 0.88. “Emotion Regulation Checklist” was the third data collection tool, which was adapted into Turkish by Batum and YaAŸmurlu to measure children’s ability to regulate their emotions and has two subscales. Internal consistency coefficient of the subscales was 0.73 and 0.75. The study was based on descriptive analysis and multiple regression correlation was examined. As a result of the research, it was concluded that there was not a relationship between communication skills’ total score and social competence and emotion regulation skills. However, when subscales of each concepts were examined separately, it was found out that social competence and anxiety/withdrawal subscale together explained communication skills of preschool children moderately. And social competence, anxiety/withdrawal, anger/aggression and emotion regulation subscales explained active communication skills of preschool children moderately. Key words: Preschool children, communication skills, social competence, emotion regulation.