Investigation of Sexuality Education Elements in Children’s Picture Books for Early Childhood

Abstract

Sexuality education is on which contributes to the holistic development of children and enables them to develop positive value judgments. Often, parents and educators may not have sufficient knowledge about sexuality education, resulting in children being deprived of necessary sexual information. Children are naturally curious about their bodies, and answering children's questions plays an important role in their sexual development. Thus, sexuality education, which should ideally begin in early childhood, is the responsibility of both parents and teachers. Children's picture books are an important educational material allowing parents to more easily answer their children’s questions and to establish open and honest communication with them. Indeed, both parents and teachers can support sexuality education by utilizing quality children's picture books containing elements of sexuality education to children. The aim of this study is to examine children's picture books for early childhood in terms of sexuality education elements. The research was designed with case studies in qualitative research methods, the data were analyzed using content analysis and document examination techniques. The study group of the research consists of 30 children's picture books determined by the purposive sampling method. As a result of the study, it is seen that among the elements of sexuality education, there is sufficient representation of male/female bodies, however, body value is not sufficiently represented in the children’s books examined. According to the findings obtained from the study, it is recommended that body value be included more prominently in children's picture books and that the proper anatomical names of the genitals be used.