Browsing by Subject "viittomakieli"

In teaching children who use sign language, they have used communication methods, signs and sign language. As medicine evolved, they have reverted back to communication methods and developed hearing rehabilitation methods. This change can also be seen in early childhood ed-ucation. However, many studies have shown that the effect of sign language on the identity and the linguistic minority is significant. Despite this, the rights of the minority who use sign lan-guage are not taken into account in the early childhood education law even though the sign lan-guage act requires it and children who use sign language are noted in the early childhood edu-cation plan. The purpose of this study was to find out how a family using sign language is en-countered in early childhood education and how the children's mother tongue is taken into ac-count in kindergarten. The aim of the research was to find out how kindergarten co-operates with the parents and how the mother tongue of the child is taken into account in early child-hood education. The study was conducted as a case study. Six parents from five different families who all use sign language, were interviewed with half-structured interviews. Some of the children were hearing and some deaf or hard of hearing. Interviews done in sign language were recorded and transcribed. The interviews were analyzed by content analysis and compartmentalization. The results showed small differences between kindergartens, for example in support measures, but many parents had similar concerns about how their child's sign language develops and how it is taken into account in kindergarten. There were also differences between hearing and deaf or hard of hearing children. Sign language for hearing children was not seen as necessary in kindergarten as to deaf or hard of hearing children. All parents emphasized the importance of sign language to the child's identity regardless of their hearing. Most parents were not aware of the concrete measures done in kindergarten to support language. Parents had mostly good expe-riences of interaction with kindergarten personnel, but some felt that their concerns about lan-guage were not heard. According to the parents, personnel with past experiences with deaf people and sign language had a positive impact on the interaction between parents and person-nel. Based on the results sign language as a child’s first language should be taken into account in kindergartens in more concrete measures and the early childhood education act should be changed as the sign language act requires.