Browsing by Title

Objectives. The goal of this thesis was to examine the assumptions of an inclusion that personnel in early childhood education have. The theoretical context of this study is the ecosystem model of inclusive early childhood education. Model is developed based on Urie Bronfenbrenner´s ecological systems theory. In the ecosystem model is described macro-, meso-, ecso- and microsystem factors that has to be considered when early chilhood ecucation is developed as more inclusive. Concepts are also explained. Methods. The material of this thesis was collected in research that clarified the state of special support in early childhood education. In this thesis was analysed one question´s answers of that research. Answers was given 572. From these answers was chosen five personnel groups whose answers was received more than 15. From these groups (early childhood special education teacher, early chilhood education teacher, childminder, nursery nurse and day care center manager) was chosen 15 answers each, based on discretionary sample. The answers that were chosen told about inclusion from works point of view. The answers were analysed and categorized in themes. Fenomenografi and dialogical theme-making was used as methods. Results and conclusions. Seven themes were made from the answers: the pedagogical solutions and tools that support inclusion, inclusion as a value, associates who support inclusive early childhood education, inclusion as a child´s right, inclusion as a child’s place, the challenges that inclusion has and enough education and know-how for inclusion. Themes were divided in between personnel groups. Inclusion as a value and inclusion as a child´s right were mentioned in every groups answers. The pedagogical solutions and tools that support inclusion was mentioned mostly by early childhood education teachers and early childhood special education teachers. Inclusion as a child´s place was mostly mentioned by early childhood special education teacher and day care center managers. Inclusion´s challenges were mentioned mostly by nursery nurses and day care center managers. Enough education and know-how for inclusion was mentioned by day care center managers, early childhood education teachers and nursery nurses. Associates who support inclusive early childhood education was written by early childhood special education teachers and early childhood education teachers.

The aim of the study. A need to involve customers in decision making, planning, implementation and evaluating quality regarding their services has been identified in health care since 1990s'. According to ecological theories, communication should be rehabilitated by impacting both the communication disabled person and his/her communication partners and environments. For communication interventions, ICF classification offers a framework that emphasizes individual's functioning and participation. In speech therapy, community –based rehabilitation has become a common working method beside and even ahead direct ways of working with a customer. Community –based approach means collaborating with communication partners to enable development of communication. Parents have taken part in their children's speech therapy, but up until the beginning of the millennium their perceptions about the received services had not been explored. The effectiveness of speech therapy can be studied from different perspectives with qualitative and quantitative measures. The aim of this study was to explore parental views and experiences of the impact of the speech therapy their child has received on daily communication and interaction. Method. Data was collected by a questionnaire. Questionnaire was sent to those parents of medical and therapy clinic Contextia's speech therapy customers, whose child had received speech therapy for at least six months. 25 respondents filled in the questionnaire. Data was analyzed by using key statistic figures and cross tabulation plus qualitatively classifying the answers of open questions. Results and conclusions. The impact of the received speech therapy was considered significant relative to development of child's communication skills and parents were satisfied with the guidance received. The role of spontaneous development was viewed minor and the role of therapy major. Cross-tabulation did not reveal dependency between the perceived impact and potential explanatory variables, since the perceived impact was large and variation was minor. Practicing linguistic skills was considered the most significant content area of speech therapy. Practicing with computer or mobile applications was considered least efficient relative to daily communication. Utilizing their use in practicing has also been guided least to parents and kindergarten/school personnel. Respondents perceived kindergarten's/school's role more significant than family's role in supporting rehabilitation. The result challenges professionals and decision makers to consider how to ensure families' commitment and support to the goals and the implementation of therapy.

Objectives. Anxiety disorders and anxiety symptoms are common even as a child, and they cause a major burden to the child as well as to the society. In order to prevent anxiety disorders it is important to understand the predisposing factors to anxiety. The influence of child's temperament and parenting style on children's anxiety symptoms have both been studied, but the results are partly controversial, and there's only a limited number of longitudinal studies. The importance of interactions between temperament and parenting style has been emphasized, but the amount of interaction studies is scarce. The aim of this study is to examine the associations between child's temperament and anxiety symptoms, associations between parenting style and child's anxiety symptoms, and whether parenting style is a moderator between the association with temperament and anxiety symptoms. Methods. The sample consisted of 262 mother-child dyads participating in the Glychyrrhizin in Licorice-study. Mothers assessed their child's temperament with the Children's Behavior Questionnaire and their parenting style with the Parent Behavior Inventory when the children were 5,5 years old. Children assessed their anxiety symptoms with the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders when they were 12 years old. The associations between the variables were analyzed using regression analyzes. Results and conclusions. High negative emotionality and its subfactors anger, fear, sadness and low soothability were associated with several anxiety symptoms. Extraversion was not associated with any anxiety symptoms, but its subfactor high impulsivity predicted increased anxiety symptoms. Low effortful control and its subfactor low inhibitory control were associated with symptoms of school phobia, and low intensity pleasure was associated with panic symptoms. Anxiety symptoms were associated with hostile/coercive parenting style, but not with supportive/engaged parenting style. Both parenting styles moderated some of the associations between temperament traits and anxiety symptoms. The findings give support both to the independent effect of temperament to children's anxiety symptoms and interactions between temperament and parenting. The findings give also some preliminary support to the "goodness of fit" –model, indicating that the effect of parenting style on children's anxiety symptoms may depend on child's temperament.

Objectives. Theory of mind is the ability to assign mental states (e.g. beliefs, intentions and desires) to oneself and others as well as to recognise that others have mental states that differ from one's own. Theory of mind helps individuals understand others' minds and interpret and predict their behaviour in relation to their mental states. Thus, it is one of the most important skills for children's social development. Normally developing children are usually able to make inferences about the mental states of other people by 5 years of age. Theory of mind development is associated with e.g. verbal ability, gender, culture and family background. Recent studies indicate that temperament may also have an influence on children's theory of mind. Specifically, a less reactive, more observant temperament seems to enhance theory of mind development. Poor theory of mind may lead to various difficulties in social relationships. Thus, it is important to investigate relations between temperament and theory of mind. The aim of this study was to examine if children's temperament at 9 months and 3 years predicts theory of mind at 5 years of age. Gender differences in the relationship between temperament and theory of mind were also investigated. Method. This study used a sample from the prospective British Millennium Cohort Study. Child temperament was assessed by parental reports at 9 months and 3 years of age. Theory of mind was assessed with a false belief task at 5 years of age. The relations between child temperament and theory of mind were examined using logistic regression (n=8041). Results and conclusions. Child temperament at age 9 months did not predict theory of mind at age 5. However, low hyperactivity and inattention, high independence and self regulation, and high prosocial behaviour at age 3 predicted theory of mind at age 5 after controlling for gender, ethnicity, vocabulary and maternal education. There were no significant gender differences in the relations between temperament and theory of mind. In accord with previous studies, these findings suggest a relation between individual differences in temperament and theory of mind development. Future research is needed to clarify relations between temperament and theory of mind during infancy and early childhood.

The aim of the study was to describe children’s agency related to climate change and to find out what kind of climate actions children do. In addition, the factors limiting and supporting children’s climate action were studied. The climate crisis is a wicked problem that requires a change in human behavior. In recent years young people's concern about the climate change as well as their social impact have increased. Previous research shows that active agency promotes student’s environmentally responsible behavior. Efforts have been made to strengthen children's empowerment and agency in society by increasing opportunities for participation. In this study climate change knowledge, emotions and climate change action were the main research themes. The target group consisted of 4th grade children (N = 18) which were interviewed during winter 2021. The group interviews were recorded and analyzed using theory-guided content analysis. The children were able to name causes and consequences of climate change, as well as to suggest solutions. Participants also expressed misconceptions about climate change. Differences were found considering how children experience the severity of climate change. Emotions that the participants associated with climate change were anxiety, sadness, fear and hope. However, not all participants associated strong feelings about climate change. The children committed climate actions related to transportation, food, energy consumption and social impact. The study showed that child's social environment can act as a limiting or promoting factor in climate action. Adult example in particular, such as parents’ role, was significant. The study shows that children’s climate action is a multidimensional entity. As some children feel that their own influence in mitigating climate change is weak, there is a need to create more opportunities for participation. Adult’s role as an enabler of child’s climate action is essential.

The purpose of this study is to find out how do Finnish children and adolescents portray their free time and school on their YouTube videos. Social media is nowadays a big part of life of almost every children and adolescent in Finland. Especially the video sharing site YouTube is really popular among younger generations. The level of school satisfaction is traditionally quite low in Finland, even though pupils generally regard school as an important part of their life. That’s why it is interesting to find out whether they bring out their school dissatisfaction also on their YouTube videos. I’m focusing mostly on the content of the videos, but I’ll also clarify, why do children and adolescents publish such videos they do and tell the things they tell in the videos. The research material consists of 10 diary-like vlog videos from 10 different vloggers, aged from 9 to 15. The videos were uploaded to YouTube during years 2016–2018. My method for data gathering was IRI-research (Investigative Research on the Internet) and I used content analysis to analyze the videos. After the analysis I then compared the findings to different surveys about children and adolescents’ free time and social media and internet usage. I also compared the findings to some studies about children and adolescents’ social relations. Vloggers researched in my study produce mostly basic diary-like description of their everyday life on YouTube. One interesting finding of this study was though that many of the videos included presentations of clothes and belongings. By showing their clothes and telling where they were bought from, the children and adolescents try to increase their social income and, in this way, improve their status among their peers. School was mentioned quite a lot in the videos. The children and adolescents talked for example about their schooldays, teachers, school supplies and also their feelings about school. School was mostly referred to either in a neutral or a negative way. Talking about school negatively can also be seen as a way of trying to improve status among peers, in a similar way as the presentation of clothes and belongings. In addition to information about children and adolescents’ free time and opinions about school, the results of this study give also further information about the meaning and role of social media as part of their social relations.

The aim of this study was to find how teachers and student teachers perceive diversity in school, as well as how children relate to diversity according to the beliefs of their teachers. Diversity and multiculturality have been studied in Finland from the diversity education perspective, however, little has been explored about how children perceive these individual differences. Previous studies have indicated that teacher's personal knowledge, values and attitudes are essential when it comes to acknowledging diversity in schools. For this reason, it is important to examine how present and future teachers understand diversity. Participants of this research were three class teachers and three student teachers from the university of Helsinki, the data for this study was gathered with theme interviews. Data was analysed with qualitative content analysis, as well as dialogical analysis of multivoicedness. The results of this study indicated, that children actively acknowledge differences in individuals. Contradictions between children appeared mainly because intrinsic qualities of people were not understood and accepted. Especially gender appeared as clear categorizations for the children. Furthermore, how children reacted about diversity was influenced by multiple factors. The ability to understand the theme of diversity varied between teachers and student teachers. All in all diversity was seen as value- and attitude-centered, as well as constantly changing phenomenon. Also, teachers were seen as active agents in considering diversity in their work. Interacting with diverse people, as well as experiences about positioning to be the other were perceived to support the competences of teachers. Finally, due to the dialogical analysis, participants were perceived to be talking from the positions of experts, ethical agents and members of school communities. On the other hand teachers referred to the knowledge of other experts in education, to the ideology of homogenous Finns, as well as to the polarized conversation of the society.

Objectives. The aim of this study is to investigate how child and family counselors feel their own role affects early childhood education and how they see the necessity of their work in the future. The social and regional differentiation of society poses challenges to basic education and early childhood education at both local and national levels. Especially in certain areas of large cities, educational disadvantage increases regionally and deepens because of socio-economic and ethnic differentiation. The role of early childhood education is to support democratic values, such as equality, equality, and respect for diversity, and to offer children the opportunity to develop their skills and make choices regardless of gender, origin, or cultural background. Child and family counselors primarily aim to prevent marginalization and support regional, social, and educational equality and equality among all children and families. Methods. I decided to use discourse analysis in the analysis of the material. In discourse analysis, the meanings of discourses are examined from many different perspectives, and the analysis is based on a close dialogue between the material and the researcher. In this study, the data was collected using a questionnaire, which means that as a researcher I have not been able to influence the respondents with my own presence when they have answered the questions. Results and conclusions. According to the respondents, the work of child and family counselors working in early childhood education had a significant impact and a need in the increasingly diverse early childhood education, because their work made it possible to meet families even more empathetically and respectfully. They promoted an atmosphere of safety and openness in early childhood education, which made it easier for families to share their thoughts between early childhood education and families. Child and family counselors offered families versatile and customized support that was easily accessible. Considering these perspectives, child, and family work in early childhood education, especially in areas of positive special treatment, plays a central role in supporting families and promoting children's well-being in their changing life situations.

Dialogue on children's wellbeing has significantly increased over the past few years. The research focus has been on subjective wellbeing, with the individual's own experiences as the main concern. The focus in this case study is on the child's voice, or discovering how well or poorly children were heard at kindergarten meetings, where they discussed photographs that they had taken. The child's voice in this context refers to the child's own experiences and perspectives narrated by himself/ herself. In my study, I focus on listening to the child through participation. I concentrate on observing how listening and participation were realized in semi-structured interactive situations within a kindergarten group. In addition, I pay attention to any factors that contributed to the child's voice being heard. In my research, children's participation is observed from a sociocultural perspective. The research data was collected in a kindergarten group, whose activities are based on positive pedagogy. The aim of positive pedagogy is to support the child's overall wellbeing, emphasizing children's own initiative and involvement in their surroundings. This pedagogical faction that has recently gained popularity specifically pays attention to children's individual, meaningful experiences, and on positive feelings that the children can process and share in a familiar community. The study represents a child-focused research approach, in which children are direct providers of data. The actual research data consists of filmed interactive situations, in which the children narrate the experiences they have documented. A detailed analysis, applying Harry Shier's model (2001) on the pathways to participation and discourse analysis, was conducted on reflection discussions among five children. The children's participation in this study was multilevel: the children's roles were not only passive, but active when their views were taken into account. Three significant factors that contribute to children's voices being heard emerged in the study. Strategies of teacher, various tools used in activities, and other children appeared to affect participation and listening in reflection discussions. A conclusion to be drawn from the study is that cultural tools and other people have an effect on how the child's thoughts and opinions are presented in discussions.

The everyday life of the families with children has changed a lot within past decades. Busy lifestyle, uncertainty of employment, financial problems, loneliness and lack of support add challenges to the everyday life. Some of the parents experience the routines and coping with everyday life overwhelming. Everyday life of the families is very complex and it requires complex household skills. The Martha Organization has been supporting families with children several years and is aiming to advance the wellbeing of homes and families for example with Supporting the everyday life of the families with children- program, which includes lectures, courses and home visits. The work aims to support the everyday life of the families by house-hold counseling. The purpose of this study is to examine The Martha Organization's Supporting the everyday life of the families with children-plan and its influence on the everyday life of the families by analyzing customer feedback collected and to give ideas on improving the plan. In addition the aim is to examine how the different dimensions of everyday life and household skills emerge from the customer feedback. The study is a qualitative research. The material is the customer feedback collected by The Martha Organization in years 2015 and 2016. The used analyzing method was content analysis through classification. The results of the study indicate that the people who participated in the Supporting the every-day life of the families-plan were very satisfied with the work of the The Martha Organization. Especially The food adventure begins! -courses and counseling home visits were experi-enced useful for improving the everyday life by the families. The participants felt that the courses and the home visits affected most the eating habits by reinforcing one's trust to one's capabilities and helping the flow of the everyday life in a practical level. The participants' man-agement of the everyday life seemed to reach the competent level, which could bee seen in the purpose of their activities and in the aim to enhance the wellbeing and quality of the everyday life of the whole household. Practical everyday skills and information seeking and processing skills stood out in the household skills area.