Transition of special needs children from kindergarten to primary school

In my master's thesis, I dealt with the issue of transition of special needs children from kindergarten to school. First, I provided a general description of the term transition, and then I focused more on the period when children first enter school. I described two dominant approaches to transition of children when starting school – school readiness and transition in accordance with the ecological model. I showed why this transition to school may represent an obstacle, what may hinder the process of transition and what are the general and specific activities proposed by various authors that may make the transition easier. Namely, starting school can be challenging for children with typical development, let alone children with special needs, which may have even greater difficulties. I also presented research findings in this field. Given that, most literature on this subject is foreign in origin, for very little information can be found on this theme in the Slovene literature, my main research problem in the empirical part of the thesis was to establish what provisions are made for special needs children in Slovenia during their transition from kindergarten to school. In the empirical part of the thesis, I highlighted various aspect of this issue, using information from different people involved in this process. I gathered data by interviewing a total of eleven people (kindergarten and school counsellors, and parents). By asking questions, I tried to ascertain what activities are being carried out to make the transition easier in the kindergarten prior to starting school and in school after the school has started. I was interested in for whom they were intended and if (and how) schools and kindergartens cooperate during the transition process. In their interviews, school counsellors talked about various preparatory activities for the children/students, and mothers spoke of what activities were offered to their children. The most frequently mentioned activity was kindergarteners’ visiting schools. In the majority of cases, the preparation of special needs children did not differ greatly from that of the entire population of children entering school. In selected cases, interviewees often mentioned the exchange of at least basic information about children. This is also important so that teachers can prepare for the new student ahead of time, and adjust the learning environment accordingly. Nevertheless, the transition process in these selected cases has not been planned or systematically organized. Rather, it was done when necessary. Quite a few issues were pointed out which could probably be resolved through good cooperation and exchange of information. This would likely be easier if there was a coordinator for the period of transition, who would act as a liaison between all involved parties. Even though I am unable to generalize my findings to the entire Slovene territory due to the small number of people participating in the research, the findings do offer an insight into the process of transition, the current good practices and challenges. Additionally, it points to what must be done to make the transition of special needs children to primary school even more successful, so these children receive the appropriate support that will make it easier for them to face all the changes during this transition period from kindergarten to school