PROCEDURES OF PLACING CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS IN PRESCHOOL PROGRAMMES IN SLOVENIA

• Main Author: Erna Žgur
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: CEOs Ltd. 2014-05-01
• Series: Innovative Issues and Approaches in Social Sciences
• Subjects: adapted curriculum
• Online Access: http://www.iiass.com/pdf/IIASS-2014-no2-art07.pdf

The aim of this research was to establish whether the implementation of early intervention legislation is uniform throughout the national territory. The research included all pre-school children (1121) between 2008 and 2012, placed either in the programme with the adapted curriculum and additional professional support (regular classes) or the adapted programme for pre-school children in special class units. We tried to determine whether the gender proportion is equally distributed across the national territory and if there is a significant difference according to the two pre-school programmes. For this purpose we used a Z-test with a 5% risk in hypothesis testing. It determined that the gender proportion is similar in all regional units; structural difference thus does not result statistically significant (Z = 0,26 for males and 0,02 for females); critical value for the appropriate number of degrees of freedom is Z0,05(1000) = 1,96. The proportion of children placed in regular classes and special class units, however, results statistically significant; Z = 2,96 with Z0,05(1000) = 1,96. Similarly, the difference in the gender proportion in the entire sample results statistically significant; Z = 15,11 with Z0,05(1000) = 1,96 (the proportion of males is higher than those of females). In both programmes the representation of children by gender results more or less even across the national territory (two-thirds of males and one-third of females). With the results obtained, the research confirmed that the procedures of implementing early intervention legislation are uniform throughout the Slovene national territory.