Play is the primary activity of childhood. It is connected to other areas of child’s development, therefore through play, children improve skills and abilities. The most common categorization of play is into the developmental and social aspect of play. The highest level of play is achieved when the true social play occurs. The ideal setting for social play to occur is early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions. ECEC in Croatia is striving for inclusion of children with difficulties/special needs, as stated in Croatian ECEC leading documents. In this study, these children will be referred to as children in need of special support since is perceived that name reflects the bio-psycho-social model of disability that recognizes issues in child´s functioning, apart from the child itself, coming from the environment. All the services, for children in need of special support, including ECEC are disability-based. It has been found that children in need of special support experience problems during play which affects other domains of development. The purpose of the study is to investigate play of children in need of special support and the factors, i.e., facilitators and barriers for their play. Play of the children in need of special support is chosen to be explored through the perception of their parents and educators with the use of the grounded theory approach. After collecting data through interviews and preformed data analysis, characteristics of play children in need of special support display together with the factors that affect play positively or negatively emerged. Factors were found to affect children’s play directly or indirectly. The most outstanding facilitators for children’s play were found to be the parents’ and educators’ actions and attitudes regarding the importance of play. The most substantial barriers were found to lie in the children’s characteristics concerning play which were tended to be perceived as consequences of their difficulties and diagnosis-based educational and social systems. Furthermore, the schooling system forcing ECEC institutions to focus on early preparedness for academic success, putting play aside emerged as a notable barrier for the play.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate the concepts of children in need of special support, inclusion and how preschool teachers work with an inclusive approach in preschool with children in need of special support. The research questions that have formed the basis of this study have been 1) What does the preschool teacher's definition of the concept of children in need of special support consist of? 2)What does the preschool teachers' definition of the concept of inclusion around children in need of special support consist of?  3) How do the preschool teachers describe what an inclusive way of working looks like in preschool? 4) What previous experience do preschool teachers have of working based on an inclusive approach? The study was conducted with qualitative interviews of six preschool teachers where the collected data material was analyzed with a thematic analysis. The theory that the study leans towards is soft and hard inclusion as well as the compensatory and the critical perspective. The result showed that all preschool teachers had a consensus of definition of inclusion with children in need of special support. It was described as allowing all children to be part of a community. Furthermore, they had a similar view of the definition of children in need of special support. They believed that it was children with and without a diagnosis, children who need extra support to make everyday life work. Preschool teachers describe an inclusive way of working as an adapted approach, an adapted environment, and activities as well as certain individual-adapted methods. They described that inclusion work is based on children being involved and that the activities are based on democratic values ​​where everyone's equal values ​​are considered. All preschool teachers had a lot of experience of an inclusive approach, but they felt that there were some difficulties.

The overall aim of this licentiate thesis is to increase our knowledge about the division of labor in the work with children in need of special support in preschools as described by the occupational groups of preschool teachers and special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs). This is explored in two separate studies. In the first study, the tasks, perceptions, and roles of SENCOs in preschools are examined. The study is part of a total population study where all SENCOs in Sweden (n = 4252) who were examined by the examination acts of the years 2001, 2007, and 2008 were sent a questionnaire. In a later phase of the procedure, the responses from SENCOs who work in preschools were extracted from the survey. These responses were analysed in Study I involving 523 participants. The results show that SENCOs’ working hours are primarily spent on consultation. SENCOs further report that they are able to influence their colleagues’ views on children's difficulties to a high degree. Most SENCOs in the study believe that the most important reason why children encounter difficulties in preschools is that preschools are poorly adapted to deal with children's differences. The results of this study are theoretically interpreted on the basis of Abbott's (1988) reasoning about jurisdictional control. Persson's (1998) two perspectives on different ways of understanding children's difficulties, namely a categorical and a relational perspective, are also used to interpret the results. Study II analyses how preschool teachers describe which occupational group claims jurisdiction over the work with children in need of special support. The data consist of interviews with 15 preschool teachers. The analysis of the data is based on Abbott's (1988) division of professional work into three aspects: a) formulating a problem, b) reasoning about the problem, and c) treating the problem. The results show that the area where preschool teachers claim jurisdictional control is related to the formulation of the problem. Preschool teachers do not, on the other hand, seem to claim jurisdictional control over the part of professional work that concerns reasoning about the problem. The results show a contradictory image of the treatment of the problem. Preschool teachers sometimes describe themselves as claiming jurisdictional control over treatment and other times describe how SENCOs have jurisdiction over the treatment of the problem. In the licentiate thesis, Abbott's (1988) reasoning about jurisdiction of occupational groups and Persson's (1998) categorical and relational perspectives for understanding children's difficulties are brought together and put in relation to different perspectives on inclusion.

Studien har en kvantitativ ansats där syftet är att ta reda på om samverkan mellan förskola och hem skiljer sig åt beroende på om barn är i behov av särskilt stöd eller inte, samt vilken profession som ansvarar för det. De två frågeställningar som definierar studiens syfte är: Vilken skillnad vid samverkan med vårdnadshavare finns beroende på om barnet är i behov av särskilt stöd eller inte ur personal i förskolans perspektiv? Har utbildningsgraden av personalen i förskolan någon betydelse för hur väl samverkan fungerar? Som metod användes en enkätundersökning som skickades ut till rektorer i förskolan som i sin tur skickade vidare enkäten till sina anställda. Resultatet visar att personalen i förskolan anser att samverkan fungerar mindre bra när barnet är i behov av särskilt stöd, trots att resultatet också visar att personalen lägger ner mer tid på samverkan i de fallen. Resultatet visade också att rektorerna är den profession inom ramen för förskolan som anser att samverkan med vårdnadshavare till barn i behov av särskilt stöd fungerar mindre bra.

Licentiatuppsatsen handlar om förskolans utbildning utifrån barns rätt till stöd. Barns möjligheter till relationer, samspel och interaktion med sin omgivning påverkas av de förutsättningar som finns och skapas. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur förskollärare och rektorer beskriver sin förståelse av förskolans utbildning utifrån barn som anses vara i behov av särskilt stöd. I studien används en hermeneutisk forskningsansats tillsammans med ett systemteoretiskt perspektiv utifrån Bronfenbrenners ekologiska utvecklingsmodell (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1994) och bioekologiska modell (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Semistrukturerade intervjuer har använts som metod. Totalt har 15 intervjuer genomförts med åtta rektorer och sju förskollärare. Studiens resultat visar att respondenterna anser att de arbetar med barn i behov av särskilt stöd men de har samtidigt svårt att definiera vilka barn som är barn i behov av särskilt stöd. De menar att alla barn, tillfälligt eller långvarigt, kan vara barn i behov av särskilt stöd och att barnen inte behöver ha någon funktionsnedsättning eller diagnos för att behöva stöd. Resultatet visar också att rektorer och förskollärare beskriver flera organisatoriska förutsättningar i arbetet med barn i behov av särskilt stöd. Rektorns ledarskap och hur det specialpedagogiska stödet organiseras i förskolan är exempel på organisatoriska förutsättningar. Pedagogiska strategier handlar till exempel om hur förskollärare arbetar nära barnen för att kunna se vad om händer i barngruppen och för att kunna ge stöd till barnen om det behövs. Den komplexitet som framträder i resultatet på samhälls-, organisations-, grupp- och individnivå skapar både möjligheter och utmaningar att möta alla barn och att utveckla en likvärdig utbildning i förskolan. / The aim of the study is to examine how preschool teachers and preschool principals describe their understanding of preschool's education based on children in need of special support. The following research questions are in focus: How do preschool teachers and preschool principals describe children who they consider to be children in need of special support? What organizational conditions in education for children in need of special supports do the preschool teachers and preschool principals describe? What pedagogical strategies in education for children in need of special supports do the preschool teachers and preschool principals describe? The study applies a hermeneutics framework and a system theoretical perspective. Bronfenbrenner's ecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1994) and the further developed bioecological model (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006), with its associated PPCT-components (process, person, context, time), are used. Semi-structured interviews have been used as a method. Fifteen interviews have been conducted, eight with preschool principals and seven with preschool teachers. The result shows that the respondents do consider themselves working with children in need of special support, but they explain that it is difficult to identify which children this applies to. They argue that all children can at some point, temporarily or permanently, need special support and the children do not necessarily need a diagnosis in order be in special needs. The result also shows that the preschool principals and the preschool teachers describe several organizational conditions that can be useful in their work with children in need special support. The leadership of the preschool principal and how the support to children in special need is organized are examples of organizational conditions. Other thing they discuss are the preschool staff´s education and competence. Pedagogical strategies are, for example, how preschool teachers describe their job near the children to monitor what happens in the child group and to be able to support the children. The results suggest that there are shortcomings regarding equity, based on the descriptions given by preschools teachers and principals. There are shortcomings in equity regarding educational issues and how the preschools organize and carry out the work with children in need of special support in preschool.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate preschool teachers' perceptions about how they work with responding to children in need of special support as part of the preschool's inclusion work. The study further includes what resources are available in the preschool to make the best possible for children in need of special support. The study is based on which working methods preschools use when including all children in preschool activities. The design of the environment is important for inclusion in the business. This study is based on a qualitative method with interviews as a way of gathering data material about the inclusion of children, even those in need of special support from legitimate-preschool teachers. It is based on interviews in five different communes to see differences and similarities between what resources and working methods the preschools have available to work with including all the children. The results indicate that it differs between the preschools for their resources and how they work with children in need of special support to include all children in the activities. There are differences in what the informants think about what children in need of special support are and some point out that it can be whole families that need support. All informants also explain about the design of the environment and how important it is in their work of including all the children. What all five preschools have in common is that they have special pedagogue available for their preschool teachers. The views that the data material is analyzed from are theories intersectional perspective and socio-cultural perspective. / Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka förskollärares uppfattningar om hur de arbetar med att bemöta barn i behov av särskilt stöd som en del av förskolans inkluderingsarbete. Studien innefattar vilka resurser som finns att tillgå i förskolan, för att göra bästa möjliga för barn i behov av särskilt stöd. Studien utgår från vilka arbetssätt som förskolor har gällande att inkludera alla barn i förskolans verksamhet. Miljöns utformning är betydelsefull för inkluderingen i verksamheten. Denna studie utgår från en kvalitativ metod, med intervjuer som samlar in datamaterial om inkludering och barn i behov av särskilt stöd från legitimerade förskollärare. Studien utgår ifrån intervjuer i fem olika kommuner för att se skillnader och likheter mellan vilka resurser och arbetssätt som förskolorna har till förfogande i arbetet. I resultatet framkommer det skillnader mellan olika förskolor med vilka resurser som finns att tillgå, hur pedagogerna arbetar med barn i behov av särskilt stöd och att inkludera alla barn i verksamheten. Det är skillnader på informanternas beskrivningar om barn som är i behov av särskilt stöd och några påvisar att hela familjer som är i behov av stöd. Det alla fem förskolorna har gemensamt är att de har tillgång på specialpedagog. Alla informanter förklarade även kring miljöns utformning som är en viktig del i arbetet för en inkluderande verksamhet. Synsätten som datamaterialet analyseras ifrån är teorierna intersektionellt perspektiv och sociokulturellt perspektiv.

The aim of this study is to investigate how pedagogues through their language construct the concept of children in need of special support who often end up in conflicts. In this context the influence of two discourses from the scientific field of special pedagogy are analyzed: the psycho-developmental- and the relational discourse. The analysis also seeks to find whether pedagogues in this frame of discussion maintain or challenge traditional power relations between them and these children. The following questions are used to receive answers to the aim mentioned above: “How do the pedagogues describe the difficulties that the children exhibit in conflict situations?”, “What kind of support do the pedagogues consider the children to be in need of in their work with conflict management?” and “What are the consequences of the subject positions assigned to the children by the pedagogues?” The study is based on qualitative interviews with seven pedagogues from two different sections at the same preschool. In the analysis theoretical framework from social constructionism and, mainly, critical discourse analysis has been used. The choice to use critical discourse analysis also provided the study with a method, including linguistic features, in how to analyze the data. The key findings of this study showed that the pedagogues’ way of constructing the concept of children in need of special support, who often end up in conflict, differed depending on which discourse had the most influence in the pedagogues’ way of using their language. The psychodevelopmental discourse assigned the children with a subject position which did not provide them with power and impact in conflict situations. On the other hand, this proved to be the case when the words of the pedagogues were affected by the relational discourse. With impact of the relational discourse, in their way of using language, the pedagogues were also able to change traditional power relations between them and these children.

Bakgrund: Barn i behov av särskilt stöd kan ses som ett komplext begrepp. En rapport från Skolinspektionen (2017) ligger till grund för uppsatsens motiv, rapporten visar att förskolepersonal ofta saknar en samsyn över vad särskilt stöd innebär och hur det särskilda stödet utformas. Den teoretiska ansats vår studie utgår från är socialkonstruktivistisk, där människors uppfattningar ses som socialt konstruerade. De analytiska begrepp som används i studien är det kompensatoriska perspektivet, det kritiska/relationella perspektivet och dilemmaperspektivet. Dessa används för att kunna problematisera och analysera förskollärares uppfattningar och erfarenheter om arbetet med barn i behov av särskilt stöd. Syfte: Den här studien syftar till att problematisera arbetet med barn i behov av särskilt stöd. Metod: I föreliggande studie används semistrukturerade intervjuer för att besvara våra frågeställningar. Nio förskollärare har intervjuats i en mellanstor kommun i Sverige. Resultat: Vi finner att förskollärarna anser att barn som avviker från normen, barn med språksvårigheter, barn med diagnoser och barn i gråzonen är de som är i behov av särskilt stöd. Inom temat barn i gråzonen beskrivs bland annat barn med utåtagerande, alternativt inåtvända beteenden och koncentrationssvårigheter. Det särskilda stödet utformas främst i helgrupp, genom bilder och tecken som stöd men även i mindre grupper och individuellt. Så gott som alla förskollärare betonar att deras bemötande är en central del i hur det särskilda stödet utformas. Slutligen anser nästintill alla förskollärare att även faktorer såsom ekonomi, tid och personaltäthet avgör hur särskilda stödet utformas.

Studiens syfte är att belysa begreppet barn i behov av särskilt stöd. Detta har vi granskat genom att undersöka förskolepersonalens uppfattningar om vilka barn som kan tänkas vara i behov av särskilt stöd och hur arbetet med dessa barn i förskolan ser ut, samt vilket stöd dessa barn kan få. Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ metod och använt oss utav semi-strukturerade intervjuer och de respondenterna som deltog representerades av verksamma pedagoger i förskolan. Vi har sedan analyserat intervjustudien och studiens resultat tyder på att begreppet barn i behov av särskilt stöd är svårdefinierat och otydlig. Resultatet visade även att en diagnos i många fall kan underlätta arbetet för pedagogerna och de barn som är i behov av särskilt stöd, eftersom de lättare kan få tillgång till det stöd som behövs, exempelvis en resurs. Vår studie visade även på att pedagogernas bemötande, kunskap och kompetens om de barn som är i behov av särskilt stöd är viktigt för att kunna stötta barnen. Slutsatsen av vår intervjustudie blir att barn i behov av särskilt stöd är ett komplext område att förhålla sig till samt att, det krävs fördjupade kunskaper inom de olika områden som finns gällande barn i behov av särskilt stöd. Exempelvis fördjupade kunskaper om diagnoser, funktionsnedsättningar, språksvårigheter samt verktygens användningsområden. Slutsatsen blir även att tillgången till resurser är begränsad hos de förskolor som vi har besökt och det krävs oftast en diagnos eller uttalad funktionsnedsättning, för att pedagogerna i förskolans verksamhet ska få in resurser till ett barn som är i behov av särskilt stöd.

In today's Swedish preschool and elementary school all children are entitled to an inclusive education, where they receive the support and are presented with the educational challenges they are perceived to be in need of. To meet the needs and preconditions of all children, the educational mission of teachers today involves the apply of special educational tools, such as for example the use of visual support. The aim of this study is to analyse teachers experiences of visual support and the results they have experienced from using visual support in the learning environment. The study involves a preschool and an elementary school in a municipality in Sweden, and is based on interviews with three preschool teachers, three elementary school teachers, the headmaster of the preschool, and the headmaster of the elementary school. The results have been analyzed using sociocultural theory and a relational perspective on special education. The overall results show that teachers have used visual support for the children as a group, combined if necessary with visual support for individual children. Furthermore the results show that the use of visual support originates from a necessity to address pedagogical dilemmas and problems that have arisen within the learning environment. Both the headmasters and the teachers describe that the use of visual support has been beneficial for improving the learning environment for all of the children as well as the working environment for the teachers. In accordance with sociocultural theory and a relational perspective on special education, visual support has been used by the teachers participating in this study, as a tool to promote inclusion of all children, and as means of adapting the learning environment according to difficulties children experience within that context. The results of this study confirms that the use of visual support for children as a group can be considered a good example of what Jensen (2017) describes as reversed inclusion, meaning that the learning environment is adapted on a group level to meet the needs and preconditions of children in need of special support.