An Examination of Preschool Aged Children's Perceptions of Play

The purpose of this study is to reveal the perceptions of today's children surrounding play. A phenomenological method was used in the research, designed qualitatively for the purpose of revealing pre-school-aged children's perceptions of play in their pictures. A total of 97 children being educated in two different preschools in the fall term of the 2018-2019 academic year participated in the study. Purposeful sampling was used in the creation of the working group. before beginning the application to collect data, the children who participated in the sampling were chatted with and their teachers were discussed. The picture drawings were later specified by providing the directive "Let's draw our favorite type of play." The acquired data were analyzed with the interpretive content analysis method, a qualitative analysis. When the results of the research were studied, it was determined that children aged 36-48 and 49-60 months preferred inside spaces as a play space in their pictures while children aged 61-72 months much preferred outside spaces; that the children aged 36-48 more often drew the genders of the people in their play as female while the children aged 49-60 and 61-72 months more often drew their genders as male; that the children aged 36-48, 49-60, and 61-72 months most often chose the spaces where they played their play in their pictures as homes; that the children aged 36-48 months most included technological tools in their pictures; and that the children aged 36-48, 49-60, and 61-72 months most included their friends as playmates in their pictures.