Abstract:

This research has been performed to investigate whether prosocially oriented picture books covering the topics of helping and sharing could support the related behaviors of six-year-old children who attend pre-school institutions. Forty six-year-old children were chosen from three preschool institutions to consist the sample of this experimental study. In order to evaluate helping behaviors of children at the pre-test and post-test phrase, a box full of pencils, erasers, paper-clips was dropped on the floor on purpose, and the children’s reactions were observed and recorded. To evaluate the sharing behavior of children, five stickers were given to the children and asked if they wanted to share these stickers with a child who is in the hospital due to illness. Furthermore, a form including questions on helping and sharing was distributed to families and teachers of the sampling children. Eight picture books were read to the experiment and control groups for two weeks. For the experiment group, four of the books read were on helping and four of them were based on sharing behaviors. Following the reading session, questions about stories, discussions and related activities were arranged. According to findings of this research, the books read to the experimental group had effects on children’s helping and sharing behaviors and the degree of effects was stronger on the helping behaviors of girls and sharing behaviors of boys. The answers given by families and teachers were found inconsistent when the answers of the two groups were compared to each other. The behaviors depicted by answers of families and teachers, and the actual behaviors of children were found inconsistent. Keywords : Prosocial Behaviors, Helping Behavior, Sharing Behavior, Preschool Children, Picture Books