Supportive environment for children with special needs at kindergartens

On the 9th and the 10th of April, Karin Dom Foundation held two round table meetings on the subject of “Creating a supportive educational environment for children with special needs at kindergartens”. Participants in the discussion were principals, teachers and psychologists from the kindergartens in Varna, as well as parents with their children with special needs, representatives of the Recourse Centre and non-governmental organizations.

The experience of Karin Dom in the field of preparing and integrating the children with special needs at kindergartens was presented along side some of the future activities on the project “Creating a supportive educational environment for children with special needs at kindergartens”. The project is directed towards an effective model for support of the children, by sharing the experience and the good practice that Karin Dom has with the kindergartens.

The most common challenges when integrating the children were also discussed. Some of them are: the big groups at the kindergartens, not enough resource support, unsuitable architectural environment, the difficulties in working with the parents, especially in cases when they cannot accept the necessity of the said resource support for the child, and last but not least, ignoring the children.

The parents shared their dissatisfaction with the way the assistant cares for the child and the communication between teacher and assistant, which makes the child more dependable instead of more independent. The suggestion of the Resource Centre, that the assistant should be appointed at the kindergarten and work with more than one child, based on the specific needs, was met with approval.

The principal of the Resource Centre, Mrs. Shirokova, presented the basic elements of the supportive environment by indicating the possibility for kindergartens to make use of the funds for didactic materials and the improving of the environment when accepting a child with special needs at a kindergarten. Parents and teachers showed their admiration for the kindergartens that managed to successfully integrate children with special needs.

The participating kindergartens expressed their contentment and wish to be included in the activities of the project. The feedback confirmed the necessity of trainings for the teachers, the joint work with the parents and the support of the specialists from the resource centres in order to guarantee the best conditions in the integrated education for the children with special needs and their families.

The round table meetings are part of the project “Creating a supportive educational environment for children with special needs at kindergartens”, that is funded by the NGO Programme in Bulgaria under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2009-2014 – www.ngogrants.bg

This document is created with the financial support of the NGO Programme in Bulgaria under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area. The responsibility for the contents of the document is taken by Karin Dom Foundation and it cannot be accepted, under no circumstances, that this document reflects the stand of the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area and the Programme operator for the NGO Programme in Bulgaria.