Kindergarten and First Grade Parents’ Perspectives on School Readiness for Young Children with Special Needs

• Main Authors: Wan-Yu Chen, 陳宛渝
• Other Authors: Szu-Yin Chu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/57840096998178872799

碩士 === 國立臺東大學 === 幼兒教育學系碩士班 === 102 === This study aims to investigate parents’ perspectives on school readiness for young children with special needs prior entering general education classrooms. The data mainly collected through questionnaire, accompanying semi-structured interview to strengthen the study. The school readiness instrument included five domains, such as school adaptation, motor, social relation, cognitive development, and language expression. The participants were kindergarten and first grade parents of children with special needs who lived in the Taichung. The total of 265 questionnaires was sent, and effective questionnaires were 233, yielding a 93% response rate. Of all the questionnaires, 116 were kindergarten parents and 117 were first grade parents. The results were found as follows: 1. Parents in this study viewed school readiness as an essential and required ability. Furthermore, their perspectives on five domains of school readiness mainly fall on the section between “important” and “very important.” 2. Of the five domains, parents ranked language and cognitive development as the top priority, whereas motor as the fifth one. (1) In the domain of school adaptation, kindergarten parents perceived that the top 3 highest scores in the items were “be able to use restrooms on one’s own,” “be able not to cry in class and adapt new environment,” and “be able to wipe one’s own after making a poo and throw toilet papers in trash cans.” Similar to kindergarten parents, first grade parents agreed with the first two items. However, they considered “be able to point out or speak problem solving methods” to be the third item. (2) In the domain of motor, kindergarten and first grade parents all perceived that the top 3 highest scores in the items were “be able to do basic running and jumping games,” “be able to use scissors to cut basic lines,” and “be able to correctly holding pencils to write.” (3) In the domain of social relation, kindergarten parents perceived that the top 3 highest scores in the items were “be able to communicate effectively with peers,” “be able to ask for peers’ help if necessary,” “be able to appropriately use public equipment with others,” and “be able to appropriately take turns and wait when participating group activities.” Similar to kindergarten parents, first grade parents agreed with the first two items. However, they considered “be able to play cooperative games with peers” to be the third item. (4) In the domain of cognitive development, kindergarten parents perceived that the top 3 highest scores in the items were “be able to concentrate 10-15 minutes in class without making noise,” “be also to count and read the number from one to 20,” and “be able to know family members’ names.” For first grade parents, they conceived that the top 3 highest scores in the items were “be able to concentrate 10-15 minutes in class without making noise,” “be able to distinguish left and right sides,” “be able to recognize and imitate writing one’s own name,” and “be able to complete homework assigned by teachers with assistance.” (5) In the domain of cognitive development, kindergarten and first grade parents all perceived that the top 3 highest scores in the items were “be able to actively ask for help from others,” “be able to do consecutive two or more steps when hearing instructions,” and “be able to correctly answer teachers’ questions rather than giving irrelevant answers.” 3. The parents’ education level, monthly gross income, and the number of children emerged as significant influences on the parental perspectives on school readiness. However, there was no significant difference between parents’ age, occupation, and marriage and such perspectives.