Effect of the concept education programme on 48–60-month-old children’s visual-spatial perception mechanisms

Background: To understand how the human brain organises the information, how prototypes are handled in the categorisation system, researchers have pointed out that there may be a relationship between visual perception and concept acquisition. Aim: This study was conducted to examine the effect of a concept education programme, developed on the basis of a configured concept map, on the visual-spatial perception mechanisms of children between the ages of 48 and 60 months who were selected through random sampling from central kindergartens. Setting: The experimental group and control group each included 59 children. For data collection, the Frostig developmental test of visual perception and the Boehm Test of Basic Preschool Concepts-3 were used. Methods: The experimental group and control group each included 59 children. For data collection, the Frostig developmental test of visual perception and the Boehm Test of Basic Preschool Concepts-3 were used.Additionally, the concept education programme based on configured concept map was developed by consulting expert opinions, and this programme was applied to the experimental group. Results: In assessing the relationship between pre-and post-test scores, the findings indicate that a significant increase occurred in favour of the post-test results. However, a significant relationship favouring the experimental group was present between the post-test scores of experimental and control groups. No significant difference was found between the post-test/ monitoring measurements regarding visual-spatial perception and Boehm-3 concept skills. The data suggest that the concept education programme supported the development of children’s visual perception skills. Conclusion: On the basis of the study results, parents, teachers and researchers are recommended to use concept maps in the learning processes, particularly those related to visual-spatial perception.