Purpose
The primary goal of this thesis is to increase knowledge about involvement among children with and without the need for special support due to behavioural difficulties. The influence of social interaction on children with special needs as well as special support in Swedish pre-schools was investigated. Specifically, the goal was to investigate children’s involvement at the intersection of environmental factors, children’s behaviour and characteristics, interaction among children of the same age and teacher response.
Result
In general, hyperactive children were less involved in everyday pre-school activities. In addition, teacher - child interaction and teacher responsiveness were lower for these children, both in the moment and in the long term. the children’s hyperactive behaviour had a more negative impact on their core involvement compared to their developmental behaviour. The levels of social interaction accounted for a large proportion of the negative effect between hyperactive behaviour and involvement. Child - child interaction accounted for 56–78% of the negative effect, of which teacher response accounted for 33–34% of the negative effect.
Design
The thesis consists of four studies including both qualitative and quantitative data. A total of 832 children participated in the investigation. They were aged between one to five years old and from 92 different pre-schools. The study has a prospective longitudinal design with three data collection points.
References
Sjöman, M. (2018). «Peer interaction in preschool: Necessary, but not sufficient: The influence of social interaction on the link between behavior difficulties and engagement among children with and without need of special support». Doktorgradsavhandling. Jönköping University.