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Partnerships with parents: Children with special education needs starting primary school

Janice Schischka
Abstract: 

This study investigated the practices involved in the transition to school for children with a range of special education needs. Certain factors emerged as most important for a successful transition, including good ongoing communication and collaboration between families and schools. Teachers’ use of differentiation practices was also beneficial. The article concludes that the critical factor for successful transitions was high levels of communication and collaboration leading to good home–school partnerships.

Journal issue: 

Partnerships with parents

Children with special education needs starting primary school

JANICE M. SCHISCHKA

Key points

Collaborative transition meetings between the parents, the child, school staff, early childhood teachers and Early Intervention teachers or Resource Teachers—Vision, to determine specific needs and plan the transition process, were a key part of successful transitions in this study.

Multiple pretransition visits to schools helped smooth the path for students with special education needs.

Good communication and collaboration between teachers and parents/whånau is vital throughout the transition period.

Differentiation in the classroom, where teachers tailored curriculum, resources and the environment to meet the needs of each student, also helped students with special education needs adjust to school.

This study investigated the practices involved in the transition to school for children with a range of special education needs. Certain factors emerged as most important for a successful transition, including good ongoing communication and collaboration between families and schools. Teachers’ use of differentiation practices was also beneficial. The article concludes that the critical factor for successful transitions was high levels of communication and collaboration leading to good home–school partnerships.

Introduction

For most children, starting school at age 5 marks a major milestone in their lives (Wartmann, 2000). It can be a time of pleasurable anticipation and yet also of overwhelming anxiety and uncertainty for both child and parents. For some families, the presence of special education needs in their child could place additional pressure on this transition process.

Transition can be a very stressful time for families/whānau, particularly if it is not well planned (Ministry of Education, 2010). Previous research has identified the importance of assembling a team of personnel and holding meetings to plan and co-ordinate the transition (for example, La Paro, Pianta, & Cox, 2000). Carlson and her associates (2009) found that parental and teachers’ reports on the ease of transition varied according to whether the school initiated actions to facilitate the transition, and on how much support was available for teachers. Other researchers (for example, US Department of Education, 2001) have recognised the need for parental involvement in school transitions for children with special education needs.

Some New Zealand studies (Bourne, 2007; Wartmann, 2000) have investigated school transitions for children with special education needs and found certain practices to be most successful for teachers and parents. For example, Wartmann (2000) stressed the need for families/whānau to be involved in the decision making. In her recent review of the literature on school transitions for children with special education needs, Peters (2010) found that one of the key factors for a successful transition was good relationships between all those involved—the child, parents, early childhood and school teachers and the Early Intervention team. However, Peters also commented that there is little recent New Zealand research on the actual transition experiences of children and their parents.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the transition to regular primary schools for a sample of young children with special education needs and, in particular, the practices that occurred in the period prior to and following their school entry. In doing so, this study aims to extend the New Zealand literature on school transitions for young children with special education needs in an era of inclusion.

Since the passing of New Zealand’s 1989 Education Act, all children in New Zealand aged from 5 to 19 years are entitled to a free education at any public school. Furthermore, the Special Education 2000 policy (Ministry of Education, 1996) is based on an inclusive model. The aim of this policy is to achieve a world-class inclusive education system that provides learning opportunities of equal quality to all students (O’Brien & Ryba, 2005). Thus, this study has important implications for the practice of inclusion of learners with special education needs in Aotearoa New Zealand. The research question is: Which factors and processes are found to be most successful in the transition to school for a sample of young children with special education needs?

Method

Participants

The participants were 17 children ranging in age from 5.25 to 6.16 years (mean = 5.60 years). In ethnicity, one was Māori, 14 were Pākehā and two were New Zealand-born Asian. There were 13 boys and four girls. They had a wide range of special education needs, and two were funded by the government’s Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS).1 All the children had attended some form of early childhood centre. All were in their first year at school in full-time placements in new-entrant/Year 1 classes, and their time at school ranged from 3 months to nearly 1 year. The schools attended by the 17 children had the full range of decile rankings from low through middle to high. The study also involved one of each child’s parents (mothers = 16, fathers = 1). It also included each child’s new-entrant/Year 1 teacher, all of whom were female.

Research design

This was a qualitative study. Parents and teachers were interviewed retrospectively about the practices and factors that had occurred immediately before and following school entry. Interviewees were also asked questions about how the situation was currently working for them at the time of the research.

Instruments

The interviews were conducted in an open-ended, semistructured manner. Interview questions for parents and for teachers were designed for the specific purpose of this study by the researcher. All interviews were recorded with an audio recorder.

Data analysis

Analysing the interview transcripts focused on capturing the essence of interviewees’ responses to each specific interview question, to help create an overall picture of the nature of the children’s transition to school. The interviews were coded according to themes and examined for patterns of consistency or difference.

Findings

Factors occurring prior to school entry

Special transition meetings

Two practices emerged strongly as most significant and worthwhile to parents in facilitating their child’s smooth transition. The first of these was special transition meetings. Eleven of the children and families participated in this process. These meetings were extra to the normal Individual Plan meetings. Generally, these meetings were set up by the child’s Early Intervention teacher or by their Resource Teacher—Vision, and this person was always present at the meetings, together with the child and a member of their family/whānau. A representative of the early childhood centre staff would also attend. In general, these meetings were held at the child’s early childhood centre, and this was more likely if the centre was a public kindergarten. Also present at the meetings would be representatives of the school staff, such as the new-entrant teacher, and possibly the school principal or a deputy principal in charge of special education needs. If there were any other stakeholders involved in the child’s life, such as a physiotherapist, a speech/language therapist or an occupational therapist, these people would also be present at the meetings. These meetings gave the school staff an opportunity to meet the child and their family, although the main purpose of these meetings was always to discuss the child’s requirements once he or she started school.

Six families in this study did not participate in transition meetings. It is not clear why they were not given this opportunity. However, two of these six families got the opportunity to meet with either the class teacher or school principal prior to school entry to discuss their child’s requirements for the transition.

Pre-entry school visits

One of the significant outcomes of these transition meetings was that, for many of these children, professionals recognised that the child would benefit from more than the usual number of pre-entry school visits that were granted to other transitioning children. For many of the schools that participated in this research, the usual number of pre-entry visits was one or two. In this study, eight children were given the opportunity of between five and seven visits, and one child with complex needs (multiple disabilities) had two visits a week over a 6-week period.

The purpose of these visits was to familiarise the child not only with the school environment but also with the classroom rules and routines. The visits were phased in gradually so that the child was spending more and more time at school on each occasion, or occurred at different times of the school day, including over playtimes and lunchtimes, so that the child could experience the whole school day. Parents always remained with their child on these visits, which were not spent entirely in the classroom—some time was also spent familiarising the child with other parts of the school environment, such as the playground.

Nine of the children were not given the opportunity of extra school visits. These nine children were each granted only one or two visits. An example of one of the nine children was a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome, whose mother reported that one of his characteristics was that he did not cope well with changes to his routines. Although this child and his family had a transition meeting, they were only granted one pre-entry school visit, and he subsequently took many months to become settled into school, frequently becoming stressed on a day-by-day basis.

Other measures

Parents described a number of additional procedures they had undertaken to prepare their children for school. For example, five families made the decision, 6 months prior to their child’s 5th birthday, to transfer their child from another form of early childhood centre to a public kindergarten. This strategy was viewed by these parents as a way of preparing their child for what they might encounter once at school. That is, attending a public kindergarten would expose the children to greater numbers of students and lower teacher–child ratios.

Liaison and continuity between schools and early childhood centres

The data were examined for evidence of continuity and liaison between early childhood centres and schools. The only real evidence of this was where transition meetings were held. These occurred for 11 of the children and were always attended by a representative of the early childhood centre staff. Only three children were taken on pre-entry school visits by their early childhood centre teachers. There was only one child, the boy with complex needs, whose new-entrant teacher and teacher aide visited him in his early childhood centre prior to school entry.

Factors occurring following school entry

Academic, behavioural and teacher aide issues

Factors occurring following school entry that had an impact on school transition and adjustment included academic issues, delay in accessing services and children’s behavioural problems. Most parents (n = 13) identified academic difficulties they had encountered that were directly related to their child’s special education needs. For example, one girl with a severe vision impairment faced some difficulty trying to manage the small size of the print in her reading, handwriting and mathematics books. For four families, the major difficulty they met was the length of time it took to put teacher aide support in place for their children. Several teachers outlined a number of problems they had experienced on the basis of the children’s behaviour, and some of these behaviours continued to cause concern at the time of this research.

Many teachers and parents stressed that some of the problems encountered soon after school entry no longer existed at the time of this research. For example, some of the difficulties disappeared once teacher aide support was put in place. Additionally, the parent and teacher of the girl with vision impairment described how they had resolved the child’s problems with the small size of the print. Discussions had ensued between teacher and parent, the two teacher aides and the Resource Teacher—Vision, and suggestions were advanced about what might work for this girl. For example, the lines in her exercise books were marked with thin black tape and she was allowed to print with felts instead of pencils. Also, her reading books were taken away in advance by the Resource Teacher—Vision so that the font could be enlarged, and she was permitted to take home in advance any large blown-up books that the class were about to read. In this way, problems had been resolved through a process of communication and collaboration. These may also be seen as examples of differentiation being practised. Differentiation is the process by which curriculum objectives, resources, teaching methods, learning activities and assessment methods are planned to cater for the needs of individual students (George, 2003) in order to make the whole curriculum accessible to all individuals in ways that meet their learning needs.

Factors occurring following school entry that had an impact on school transition and adjustment included academic issues, delay in accessing services and children’s behavioural problems.

Levels of communication and collaboration between families and schools

Parents were asked how much contact or interaction they as a family had with their school in order to meet their child’s needs. Their answers tended to distinguish those children for whom the transition had gone quite smoothly from those children for whom the transition had been less successful. Although the teachers themselves were not directly asked this question, the data from their interviews tended to confirm on an individual, child-by-child basis what the parents reported.

For eight children, there emerged a strong sense of good communication between parents and school personnel, and of families and schools working together in collaboration to better meet the children’s needs. To some extent, this was because of schools having an “open-door” policy, and of teachers being willing to be available and approachable to parents. However, this was very much a two-way process: there were also instances of parents saying, “I’m an open book. If you have any questions, I’m only too happy to answer them.” In addition, one of the teacher interviewees reported that she was quite inexperienced in working with children with special education needs, but said, “Look, I can ask the mother even the silliest little things, and she is only too willing to help, to answer my queries.”

At the other end of the scale, there were five families for whom the levels of contact or interaction between them as a family and their child’s school appeared to be quite minimal. In some cases, parents reported a “closed-door” policy on the part of schools, despite the best efforts of parents. However, in other cases, it appeared to be more because of a “hands-off” attitude on the part of parents, even though their schools encouraged those parents to be a lot more proactive and involved than they actually were. For example, when asked how much contact or interaction they as a family had with their child’s school, one father replied, “The school encourages it far more than we actually participate.” When the teacher was interviewed, she confirmed what the father reported, saying that she had tried to encourage the family to become a lot more involved, to ask any questions or to discuss any problems, but they had not really taken up the offer.

Third, there was a group of four families for whom the situation with regard to communication and collaboration was less clear-cut. When asked the question about contact/interaction, these four families were fairly noncommittal in their replies. However, there seemed to be reasonable opportunity for communication between them and their schools. For example, these parents were in their children’s classrooms twice a day to drop off and collect them and would use these occasions to talk with teachers. These mothers also stated that the school personnel were quite proactive in approaching them to let them know how their children were doing, to discuss any problems and to encourage them to ask questions. Additionally, for these four families, it appeared that little had arisen in the way of problems that required a high level of collaboration between themselves and their schools.

For four of the children in this study, their teachers had initiated a communication system of a notebook or small exercise book to pass messages between school and home. The parents of these four children expressed their appreciation for this contact, reporting that they liked to know how their child’s school day had gone.

Adaptations to classroom environment and to class programme

When asked about modifications to their physical environment to cater for the children’s special education needs, the majority of teachers answered in the negative. Those who answered in the affirmative were mainly teachers of children with either physical disabilities or vision impairments. These teachers had, for example, moved the mat to avoid classroom glare or ensured there were clear pathways around furniture.

As for adaptations to their class programme, many teachers described making minor modifications, such as the teacher of a boy with a vision impairment who allowed him to underline the text in his reading books with a piece of black paper to facilitate his reading. The teachers of two boys (a child with Asperger’s Syndrome and one with complex needs) were making more major adaptations to their curriculum. Both children had programmes that were individualised and unique to them, and the boy with Asperger’s Syndrome had his programme delivered solely by his teacher aide. However, many of these teachers regarded these modifications as being within the normal range.

These strategies could be seen as differentiation being practised. However, differentiation practices were not always being applied in a consistent fashion. The mother of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder had been very successfully using sets of visuals (such as a set of photographs) with him in the home situation. There is a proportion of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder who benefit more from visual teaching strategies than from traditional teaching methods (Tissot & Evans, 2003). At school, for his first two terms, he had had a relieving teacher while his permanent teacher was away on leave, and this relieving teacher had been successfully using the visuals with him in the classroom. When the permanent teacher returned to the classroom at the beginning of the third term, she discontinued using the visuals with him, which was a source of some frustration for his mother. She reported that, in general, her son was managing quite well in the classroom, but there were occasionally situations that arose which this mother felt would be better managed with the use of the visuals.

Teacher expectations of children’s behaviour and learning

The teachers of this study were almost unanimous that they had the same expectations of the target child’s behaviour as they did of the other children in their class. That is, they expected the child to observe classroom rules, and to show respect and courtesy to all other members of the class. However, in terms of their learning, the majority of teachers reported that they tailored their expectations of each child’s learning according to each student’s individual developmental level and ability, but that this would be the same for every child in their class. This is yet another example of differentiation being practised.

Discussion

The results of this study underscore the importance of careful preparation and planning that begin well in advance of school entry for young children with special education needs. These findings also emphasise the importance of high levels of communication and collaboration between the family/whānau, early childhood staff, school personnel and other professionals that commences well before school entry and continues throughout the transition period. Other processes found to be most successful include holding meetings to plan the transition, allowing children and families to make multiple pre-entry school visits and teachers using differentiation practices.

The results of this study underscore the importance of careful preparation and planning that begin well in advance of school entry for young children with special education needs.

This study found several examples of differentiation being practised across the 17 participating schools. However, differentiation practices were not always being used in a widespread, consistent fashion.

Many of the practices found to be most successful in this study have more recently been stipulated by Ministry of Education Special Education guidelines (Ministry of Education, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, n.d.). However, this present study was conducted before many of these protocols were published. Although Ministry of Education Early Intervention has clear processes in place for school transitions, many of these practices are recommended guidelines (for example, see Ministry of Education, 2010) rather than mandatory requirements (for example, see Ministry of Education, 2006). For example, although pre-entry visits to the new school are recommended (Ministry of Education, n.d.), there is no compulsion for schools to allow parents and children more than one of these school visits. It is up to parents to negotiate the number, frequency and duration of these visits with their new school (Ministry of Education, 2009).

Procedures for transition to school are also influenced by Resource Teachers—Learning and Behaviour (RTLB). RTLB are structured in clusters, and each cluster must have an operational document that describes cluster policies and procedures in accordance with the RTLB policy (Ministry of Education, 2007). The cluster management committee is responsible for the development of the operational document. Within this document there are various sections, one of which is service provision, including the management of transition. However, RTLB do not have nationwide protocols for the transition to school (RTLB teacher, personal communication, 23 August 2011). Part of the interface between Early Intervention and RTLB is to work out within each cluster what the protocols for school transition should be, but this is done on a local, cluster-by-cluster basis. The RTLB service is currently undergoing transformation (RTLB teacher, personal communication, 23 August 2011).

Implications for practice

Many of the recommendations for educational practice that arise from this study are supported by recently published Ministry of Education processes and protocols. From 2012, an additional 1,000 children a year, aged from 5 to 8 years, will receive specialist services from the Ministry of Education to make a successful transition from early childhood education to school (Ministry of Education, 2011). It is important that Ministry of Education Special Education transition processes should be flexible enough to be individualised to each student. However, the findings of this study indicate that certain practices are particularly beneficial. For example, children with special education needs transition to school most successfully when multiple pre-entry visits are provided. It is recognised that the child with special education needs may need longer to become familiar with both the school environment and with classroom rules and routines (Wartmann, 2000).

One way to increase continuity and liaison between early childhood centres and schools would be for the new-entrant teacher to visit the child in their early childhood centre prior to school entry (see also Ministry of Education, n.d.). In this study, the holding of collaborative team meetings to plan and co-ordinate the child’s transition was not universally common for all children. However, the findings show that these meetings are a key way that schools and early childhood centres can help children with special education needs who are starting school, and that all transitioning children could benefit from these meetings. Once the child has started and become settled into school, the use of a communication notebook to pass messages between home and school is an effective practice that supports children’s transition (see also Ministry of Education, 2009). Additionally, to further support children with special education needs, teachers could extend and consolidate their use of differentiation practices in the new-entrant/Year 1 classroom.

Another goal would be to improve communication and collaboration between families and school staff (see also Bourne, 2007). This requires school personnel to be open and approachable with parents, or it may even necessitate teachers making the first move in approaching the family. The parents of children with special education needs are particularly keen to hear how their child’s school day has gone (Wartmann, 2000). It may also mean encouraging parents to become more proactive and involved with the school, so that they feel comfortable about discussing problems and asking questions.

Conclusion

The results of this study provide a relatively promising picture of school transitions for young children with special education needs in the current inclusionary environment in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is evident that, for many children, certain practices have occurred, while, for others, some of these processes have been absent. This has distinguished those children for whom the transition has gone smoothly from those for whom the transition has been less successful. It is concluded that the critical factor in determining school transitions for young children with special education needs is high levels of communication and collaboration leading to good home–school partnerships.

Acknowledgements

The doctoral thesis this article is based on was supported in part by a New Zealand Federation of Graduate Women Fellowship and a grant from The University of Auckland Research Committee. I am grateful to Dr Richard Hamilton, Senior Lecturer, The University of Auckland, and Dr Anne Schofield, New Zealand Careers College, for their assistance with this article.

References

Bourne, L. (2007). A story of transition to school. Kairaranga, 8(1), 31–33.

Carlson, E., Daley, T., Bitterman, A., Heinzen, H., Keller, B., Markowitz, J. et al. (2009). Early school transitions and the social behavior of children with disabilities: Selected findings from the Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study. (NCSER 2009 3016). Washington, DC: National Center for Special Education Research.

George, D. (2003). Gifted education: Identification and provision (2nd ed.). London: David Fulton.

La Paro, K. M., Pianta, R. C., & Cox, M. J. (2000). Teachers’ reported transition practices for children transitioning into kindergarten and first grade. Exceptional Children, 67(1), 7–20.

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O’Brien, P., & Ryba, K. (2005). Policies and systems in special education. In D. Fraser, R. Moltzen, & K. Ryba (Eds.), Learners with special needs in Aotearoa New Zealand (3rd ed., pp. 22–48). Southbank, VIC: Thompson/Dunmore Press.

Peters, S. (2010). Literature review: Transition from early childhood education to school. Report to the Ministry of Education. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Tissot, C., & Evans, R. (2003). Visual teaching strategies for children with autism. Early Child Development and Care, 173(4), 425–433.

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Note

1This has recently been changed from Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Scheme (ORRS) (Ministry of Education, 2011). The word reviewable was dropped because children who are ORS funded no longer have their cases reviewed on a regular basis.

JANICE SCHISCHKA is a qualified early childhood teacher with 16 years’ teaching experience. She taught in a variety of early childhood centres in multicultural communities throughout South Auckland. She has completed three degrees in early childhood education and special education and recently graduated with a PhD from The University of Auckland.

Email: j.schischka@xtra.co.nz