Continuity of preschool and primary education of children with special educational needs

Lina Urbienė and Alvyra Galkienė in the article analyze the issue of the effect of social and educational environment on the adaptation of pupils with special educational needs in school. The authors claim that more adaptation-related problems occur in the first forms than in the preschool group. Problems of reluctance to go to school, breaching rules of behaviour and conflicts become evident in the first form. Assumptions can be made that the main reasons why school does not fulfil the expectations of the first-formers are the following: the need for playful education is not met, other children and adults notice their disorders and are not always ready to accept them, the social competence of more than a half of the children with special educational needs is not sufficiently developed, the role of social environment is not important enough. On the other hand, a positive trend occurred that almost all the children with special educational needs got acquainted with the future environment, had visited the school. However, the communication between the preschool group and the school is not sufficient, particularly providing information about the children with special educational needs. Parents lack information on the development peculiarities of six-and-seven year-olds as well as problems of their adaptation in the first form