Browsing by Subject "delad sagostund"

Objective. The aim of this study is to highlight how staff perceived the impact of the SAGA intervention on their work in the children's group, with the children's inner world in mind. The SAGA method is based on mentalization theory, the desire to try to understand the inner world of another person. The thesis is motivated by concerns about children who do not dare to take their place and be heard in a large group of children, and a concern for the staff's understanding of children who may lack a vocabulary of emotions and therefore may be misunderstood. Methods. The study is intervention research with over fifty adults working in early childhood education in different day care centers in southern Finland with just under two hundred children aged 3-5 years. Half of the children and teachers worked in intervention daycare centers that followed the SAGA method for about 12 weeks and the other half served as a control group to compare whether the SAGA method has an impact on children and adults. In this thesis I have analyzed the staff's responses. The SAGA method is based on dialogue-based read-aloud sessions with children around age-appropriate stories in small groups of up to 7 children at a time. Staff who conducted these SAGA sessions had received training in mentalizing dialogue-based reading aloud prior to the intervention. The results of this study have been analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Qualitative data have been analyzed through thematic content analysis of the focus group interview with staff from only the intervention kindergarten. Quantitative data has been analyzed with SPSS version 28 and includes an analysis of questionnaires made both before and after intervention by staff of both intervention and control groups. Results. The SAGA method has a positive impact on both the children in the group and the staff. The focus group interview revealed how staff view the model positively, as it helped them to see all the children in the group and get to know them better. Even the most quiet and withdrawn children were reported to have the courage to join the group after the intervention. Training the early childhood education staff in mentalization theory and focusing on mentalization-related dialogues with the children increased the staff's interest in mentalizing. In other words, it can be said that the intervention had a desired effect on all participants who took part in the model.