Browsing by Subject "erityisvarhaiskasvatus"

The focus of this study is in private sector kindergartens early childhood special education in Helsinki; used procedures and current challenges from the point of view of special education. It has been studied how the supportive mechanisms and services of children with special needs have been organized in private kindergartens and what kind of choices these kindergartens make when selecting children or when special needs emerge and how the support is carried out. Additionally, It has been studied how the co-operation of public and private kindergartens work and how equal children are depending on whether they are customers of publicly or privately run services. The study also introduces methods how early childhood education in private kindergartens could be economically and functionally available possibility for all families, regardless of increased demand of special support. The study deals with a hot topic. The law about early childhood education is old (1973) and it is finally in process of being modernized. The discussion around its contents has been vivid in both academic publications and media. At the moment private kindergartens are responsible in about 8% of the national budget for early childhood education (2.6 billion €). The percentage is growing. Main material for the study consist of five interviews of professionals working in private kindergartens in Helsinki. The used method is closest to a half-structured interview, in which all interviewees were asked the same questions in flexible order. The narrative theme interviews were recorder. One person was interviewed at a time, except in one case where there were two people answering questions. Central findings of the study were that, as expected, there were hardly any children with special needs in privately run kindergartens. Amongst the applicants there had been children with special needs, but the families had been informed about the limited support possibilities and advised to turn to public early childhood services. The early childhood special education tool kit is vastly more inclusive in public than in private sector. One solution could be to increase the amount of local special education teachers that would working solely on private sector. This would make sure that children would have more equal possibilities to use their local kindergartens, despite the fact that those may be private, and be entitled to first class early childhood education Рregardless of their special needs.

The objective of this research was to find out how parents view daycare centers’ capabilities to recognize and support children with sensory processing disorders. When there are challenges in sensory processing, they are caused by the central nervous system. In the disorder, the brain is not able to parse, analyze, or unify information received from the senses. When the brain isn’t able to process information correctly, the human body won’t function correctly. This makes learning more difficult, as well as tolerating normal daily life and stressful situations. The challenges of sensory processing disorders have mainly been researched from the perspective of occupational therapy. There is hardly any research from educational science or special education’s point of view. This research is based on Jane Ayer’s sensory integration theory and modern research that supports it. This topic was approached from the parents’ perspective. This research was done by using qualitative methods. The data was gathered with a questionnaire and the subjects were chosen through snowball sampling. In total there were 47 subjects. The research was analyzed with the help of content analysis and narrative analysis. According to the findings of the research, daycare centers have low abilities to face children with sensory processing disorders. Understanding the challenges these children experience varied, according to the parents. The parents had experienced stigmatizing, blaming, and belittling of the issues from the daycare centers. In some cases, even the children had been blamed. According to the findings of the research, the symptoms of sensory processing disorders are diverse. Further, the problems of learning and behavior associated with the disorders are severe. One of the biggest difficulties in a daycare environment was that is extremely straining. Allowing the children to have a calm space was viewed as important. According to the research, a lack of information is the main reason why identifying sensory processing disorders is so difficult. Supporting children with these disorders in daycares is insufficient for the same reason. Therapy was seen as a tremendous help and a great asset for the whole family. There is a huge demand for further education and training.