Browsing by Subject "Dissosiaatio"

The goal of this study was to examine how much dissociative behaviour preschool teachers observe in 56 year old children in day care, what kind of dissociative behaviour the children exhibit in day care and in what kind of situations dissociation occurs. An additional goal was to investigate teachers’ perceptions of the reasons for dissociative behaviour in preschool children and the methods they use to respond. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were utilized in this study. Data was collected using an online questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised of The Child Dissociative Checklist, a validated measure of dissociation by MD Frank Putnam, and a set of open-ended questions. Research data consisted of 19 questionnaires filled by preschool teachers. The quantitative data was analysed using statistical analysis and the qualitative data using content analysis. The participants observed dissociative behaviour in 2 % of the 213 children in their classes, on average. One child (0,5 %) displayed more dissociative behaviour than is considered normal. The most common dissociative behaviours found were denying misbehaviour de-spite obvious evidence (9 %) and difficulties learning from experience (4,7 %). Other types of dissociation were observed in 03,3 % of the children. Most commonly, dissociation was used in interactive situations where conflict of some kind was involved. The teachers con-sidered dissociative behaviour to stem from emotional difficulties, attempts at self-regulation and getting in control, difficulties facing one’s own shortcomings, home environment or de-velopmental problems. They responded by reducing the child’s experience of shame when facing denying misbehaviour despite obvious evidence, difficulties learning from experience, rapid changes in personality or intense outbursts of anger. In case of hearing voices, re-gression or talking to oneself they resorted to normalizing the experience. Trance-like states, somatization and traumatic reactions were met with sensitivity without exception. Poor sense of time and variation in learned skills and preferences were taken into account using clear communication.