The Effect of Pattern-Based Mathematics Education Program (PMEP) on 61-72-Month-Old Preschoolers' Early Academic and Language Skills.

Pattern activities have a crucial role in supporting early academic and language skills related to cognitive development, as they play a key role in understanding mathematical ideas and relationships, and in understanding the order, logic and concepts of mathematics. From this point of view, the research was conducted to investigate the effect of the Pattern-based Mathematics Education Program on the early academic and language skills of 61-72-month- old preschoolers. Quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group was used in the study. Forty children, 20 for the experiment and 20 for the control group, constituted the sample. In the experimental and control groups, there were 61-72-month-old children who had not received any special mathematics education and were showing normal developmental characteristics; while attending one of the pre-school education centers in two different campuses of a public university in Besiktas and Esenler districts in the city of Istanbul, Turkey. In the study, General Information Form and Kaufman Survey of Early Academic and Language Skills” were used as data collection tools. A total of eight weeks 'Pattern-based Mathematics Education Program' was applied to the children in the experimental group, five days a week. Kaufman Survey of Early Academic and Language Skills was administered as pre-test and post-test to the experimental and control groups. The same test was given to the experimental group as retention test three weeks after the post-test. In this study, which was limited to the activities presented in the Pattern-based Mathematics Education Program, it was determined that the Pattern-based Mathematics Education Program was effective in supporting the early academic and language skills of 61-72 month old preschoolers.   Key words: Pattern skills, early academic and language skills, early mathematics education, early childhood education.