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ICF-CY as a Tool in Elementary School : An interview study of teacher experiences and perceptions of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for Children and Youth in their Work in Elementary School

AIM OF THE STUDY The aim of this study was to explore if ICF-CY can support teachers in elementary schools in their work in promoting children’s health, development and learning. A further aim was to bring forward what teachers experience as benefits and disadvantages in using the classification.   METHOD After an introduction to ICF-CY, six elementary school teachers filled in questionnaires based on ICF-CY for 94 children. In conjunction with this, the teachers were interviewed about their experiences and perceptions of the work.   RESULTS The results show that through their work with the ICF-CY questionnaires the teachers experienced an active process of reflection and learning. They obtained new perspectives which gave them a more holistic picture of children’s situations than they had before. The teachers found the ICF-CY to be a useful instrument to support work within the school environment towards individualized education, based on the children’s possibilities. They also felt that the importance of cooperation between the persons around each child became clearer by using ICF-CY because no single individual is in possession of all the necessary information about the child’s situation, but by combining different perspectives it is possible to establish a common ground on which education and intervention can be based. At the same time, however, the teachers found the classification somewhat overly comprehensive and in some ways complicated. Therefore they felt that an introduction to the ICF-CY is essential before adopting it.   CONCLUSIONS The teachers’ experience of seeing each child’s situation more clearly after conducting a classification by using the ICF-CY questionnaires indicates that ICF-CY should be introduced to parents, teachers and other professionals working with education and intervention for children. The way in which assessment carried out with ICF-CY as an instrument affects the process of education and intervention remains to be examined. / CHILD

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mdh-5146
Date January 2008
CreatorsTulinius, Halla Kristín
PublisherMälardalens högskola, Akademin för utbildning, kultur och kommunikation
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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