Let the young child speak

Background and aim

With the implementation of the law “Befitting education” the Dutch government tries to stimulate that all students, despite specific support needs, can attend regular education. This would benefit the social participation of all students. However, research indicate that students with social, emotional and behavioral difficulties (SEBD), attending inclusive education, often experience problems with social participation in the inclusive class. This is worrisome, because a positive social participation plays a crucial role in the overall development of students. The aim of the current study is to gain more insight in the preferred coping strategy use from socially excluded students with an indication of SEBD, in grade 1 and 2 attending regular primary education.

Method

Participants were selected based on the outcomes of a classroom sociogram and the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. In total 21 students (girls n = 7) from grade 1 and 2 were selected and interviewed with an interactive interview, based on the Q-methodology. The participants were requested to sort fifteen coping strategies on a grid ranging from effective to not effective for scenarios of bully victimization and exclusion in play by peers. These coping strategies stem from an interview study with students, with and without SEBD, in grade 5 and 6.
The sorting of the strategies were analyzed with the PQMethod software program using a centroid factor analysis with varimax rotation.

Results

After the analysis, a set of profiles were identified based on the preferences of the participants. Overall the participants had a preference for strategies with themselves as main actor. The profiles indicated that the participants with more internalizing behavior difficulties preferred the strategies were the teacher is the main actor. The participants with externalizing behavior difficulties preferred that bullying and exclusion were addressed in the classroom during circle time.

Conclusion and recommendations

This study is one of the first studies that addresses the preferences of young students and their social participation. More research addressing the needs and perceptions of this population is needed to further create awareness for teachers into the needs of their students.

Keywords

Social participation, social-emotional behavioral difficulties (SEBD), primary education, bullying, social exclusion, (coping)strategies,

Supervised by: Anke de Boer and Renske de Leeuw