Browsing by Author "Suorsa, Jenna"

Goals. It has been found that a peer group has a great impact on children’s development and learning. In a peer group, a child will learn different social skills and build his own identity. A socially withdrawn child isolates himself from his peer group which can result in the lack of positive peer relationships. Consequently, social withdrawal can lead to a child's loneliness and difficulties to establish peer relationships and friendships. The aim of this bachelor´s thesis was to study how do the kindergarten teachers define a socially withdrawn child and what kind of methods do they use to enable positive experiences from a peer group to socially withdrawn children. Method. The data of this study were collected by a web questionnaire. The hyperlink of the questionnaire was published in a Facebook group called Varhaiskasvatuksen opettajat. Eight kindergarten teachers answered the questionnaire, and the data were analyzed by theory-driven content analysis. This study was qualitative, and a research methodology was phenomenography. Results and conclusion. The kindergarten teachers who participated in the study defined a socially withdrawn child as quiet, reluctant to attend to shared activities and spending time usually alone. The kindergarten teachers enabled positive experiences from a peer group to a socially withdrawn child by supporting children's play and social competence of a withdrawn child. Furthermore, kindergarten teachers developed the communality of a day-care group and used warm interaction.