Browsing by Subject "ujous"

Objectives. The goal of this study is to investigate how shy and withdrawn children act in school, daycare and home environments, what kind of opinions kindergarten- and class teachers have on children's shyness and how they instruct these children. In addition, the aim is to analyze what kind of change the transition from kindergarten to school is for a shy child. My three research questions are 1) How children's shyness and withdrawal present themselves in kindergarten, school and home? 2) What kind of view kindergarten- and class teachers have about children's shyness and how they instruct these children? and 3) Does the shyness of the children affect on their transition to school and, if so, how? Which ones of the teacher's actions support a successful transition to school? The definitions of shy and withdrawn children are not unambiguous. In my own research, I survey shyness and withdrawal as a temperament trait like Thomas and Chess. They see it as a part of the trait approach/withdrawal. Earlier studies suggest that shy children receive less attention from the teacher and are not so happy with their social relationships than active children. It is also more difficult for shy children to seek help and start discussions. They also have a greater risk of being left out of the group. Methods. This research is a qualitative case study. The research methods were half structured interviews and observation. The teachers also evaluated their group's shy children by using shy child personal traits measuring form. Pirkko Niiranen (1995) uses the same form in her dissertation. With the form I was able to estimate the nature of the children’s shyness. I analyzed the results by using material based content analysis. Two preschool children with their teachers and mothers participated in this study. During the study, children transitioned to school. Results and Conclusions. I wanted to separate shyness and withdrawal because the behavior of the children in my research differed. One of the children felt afraid and anxiety towards all new things as the other one felt those only in social situations. Both had difficulties in asking for help and performing in front of the group. Teachers encouraged the shy children to express themselves in their own time. Teachers were eager to provide help and showed interest espe-cially when the children took initiative. There were differences in teachers’ ways to instruct these two children.