Browsing by Author "Saarelainen, Nelli"

The goal of this study was to look into how social integration of students with special educational needs has come true. The study explores social relationships and social participations of students with special educational needs in school and the impact of school on achieving social integration. The research focuses on the child's own perspective on their situation. The topic is current because integration is coming more general all the time. Based on previous studies it is known that social relationships with peers has an impact to both on the child´s adaptation and well-being. The study was conducted as a systematic literature review. During the review, six studies were found as the research material. The studies examined social relationships of school age children with special educational needs. The data were collected following the principles of a systematic literature review. After that the data were analyzed. The theoretical background of this study is the concept of social integration. Based on previous studies it can be divided in four parts by themes: interaction, acceptance by classmates, friendships and the perception of children with special educational needs. Those themes were used as the basis for the analysis. Results from the study show that social participation of students with special educational needs is comparatively weak. Students with special educational needs got worse results than their classmates in every area of social integration. They had less friends, they were less accepted and their interaction was weak. However, students with special educational needs felt themselves that their situation was fairly good. Self-image of students with special educational needs was mostly good. Based on the results of this study, it seems that school has a major impact on achieving social integration.