The Role of Bibliotherapy in the Development of School Adaptation Skills

For children who are new to school, the adaptation process in the first weeks of school is a critical period for both children and families. Difficulties experienced during this period can negatively affect children's school experience and cause them to have difficulties in areas such as establishing social relationships and adapting to rules. In order for children to have a healthy start to school life, approaches that facilitate adaptation processes are needed. In this context, bibliotherapy stands out as an effective method that supports school adaptation by helping children recognize and express their emotions and develop coping skills through a structured book reading process. The aim of the study is to examine the effect of developmental bibliotherapy practices to support the school adjustment of children who have just started preschool education. This study, which was conducted with an experimental method based on a one-group pretest-posttest design, was conducted with 20 children between the ages of 60-72 months in Ağrı province of Turkey with four sessions of bibliotherapy sessions. The "Teacher Assessment Scale of School Readiness for 5-6 Year Old Children" was used to evaluate the children's school adjustment levels before and after the intervention. The findings showed that developmental bibliotherapy significantly increased children's school adjustment skills, and positive improvements were found in the sub-dimensions of the scale, namely classroom participation, school avoidance, self-management, and love of school. The results show that bibliotherapy is an effective and applicable method in supporting children's school adaptation in preschool education and offers a practical support tool for educators and families. Cite this article as: Ozmen, K.M, & Yalman Polatlar, D. (2026). Okula uyum becerilerinin gelişiminde bibliyoterapinin rolü. HAYEF: Journal of Education, 23, 0059, doi:10.5152/hayef.2026.25059.