How Do The Five-Six Year-Old Age Group Children Define The Old Age?

Abstract

Aim: This study was conducted to determine the perceptions of children concerning the old age. Materials and Methods: This is a qualitative research, which was conducted with the mixed research method. Pre-school institutions functioning in Karaman province that admitted to participate in the project were included into the research. 106 children, who volunteered to participate and lived with their families, were included into the sample group. Semi-structured survey form was used as the data collection tool. Descriptive statistics were used in the assessment of the quantitative data and inductive content analysis was used for the assessment of the qualitative data. Results: Most of the participant children were 6 years old (67.9 %) and they were living in the city center (84.9 %), with their family elders (76.4 %). The "old" definitions of the children were summarized as changes in physical characteristics (graying hair, losing teeth, using the walking stick etc.), changes in the physical activities (slow walking, hearing less etc.), and other (getting closer to death etc.). According to the children, the positive characteristics of the elders are geniality, doing whatever they want, and being given a seat on the buses; negative aspects are their walking with difficulty, using walking sticks, having knee pains, and their death. Conclusion: The views of children about the elders are in a positive manner, and it was observed that the time spent with the elders and the games played had an important influence over their definitions about the "elders". Therefore, it is suggested that the children should be met with the elders from early ages on and they should be provided more opportunity to make observations about the elders and old age.

Keywords

• 5-6 year old
• old people
• definiton

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