The importance of early special education efforts in preschool for a successful schooling

Abstract

Abstract

In Sweden, parents decide if their children go to preschool, educational care, or stay at home before school. However, only preschools have a school preparatory role in terms of children's language development, which is problematic because research shows the importance of early support for children who are linguistically vulnerable. In our longitudinal study, six children born in 2003 to year 6 in one municipality in Sweden, are identified as needing special educational support regarding their language development. The purpose of the study is to get an picture of the identification and the special education support for these children. In addition, the purpose is to compare the special educational support with the children’s results in the Swedish subject to year 6.

The data consists of one anonymized document involving results of national tests in year 3 and 6 and grades in year 6 in the subject Swedish, one anonymized document involving the special education efforts these students got before school, an interview with the two special educators in preschool and pedagogical care, email correspondence with a special educator and one of the principals from the schools. The results indicate the importance of early special education support in preschool for successful schooling.