K. M. Barth, D.N. Szilagyi, M.

Țepelea / EAD, 2022, 6(2), 7-18

___________________________________________________________________

Education and Applied Didactics

EAD
2022, 6(2), December, 7-18

THE OPINION OF THE PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS ON THE FAMILY-
KINDERGARTEN EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIP

Karla Melinda Barth  Denisa Niculina Szilagyi  Marius Țepelea 

University of Oradea, Romania

Abstract
In this study, we propose to present data related to the results obtained after the application of a
questionnaire addressed to a number of 48 parents of children with special educational needs,
about the educational partnership between the family and the kindergarten, and it’s importance in
the recovery and the inclusion of their children in classroom.

Keywords: family; kindergarten; educational partnership; special educational needs.

Theoretical premises

For the child in general, but especially for the child with special educational
requirements, the family represents their first environment of development from
all points of view, social, educational, attitudinal, emotional, etc. We consider this
thematic approach to be a current one, the involvement of the family, respectively
the parents in the kindergarten-family educational partnership contributes to the

Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to:


Karla Barth, PhD, University of Oradea, Faculty of Humanistic and Social Sciences,
Educational Sciences Department. Address: Universităţii Street, no.1, 410087, Oradea, Bihor
County, Romania. E-mail: kbarth@uoradea.ro

Denisa Niculina Szilagyi, PhD student, Babes Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca, E-mail:
denisaniculinaszilagyi@gmail.com

Marius Țepelea, PhD, University of Oradea, Faculty of Theology,. Address: Universităţii
Street, no.1, 410087, Oradea, Bihor County, Romania. E-mail: mariustepelea@yahoo.com

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school success of preschoolers with special educational requirements, and the

kindergarten-family educational partnership has an important role in terms of
inclusive preschool education , but also especially from Romania.
Carr (1999, cited in Bonchiș, 2007, p. 79) presents a modern definition of the
family according to which, as long as the contemporary society, divorce,
separation and remarriage are common events, the most appropriate description
of the family is that of "the network of people close to the psychosocial field of
the child". Within these unique and complex social systems, a series of difficult
and sometimes problematic interactions develop, such as conflicts both within the
marital couple and between siblings. Family education has a functional character,
being directly involved in all issues regarding the care, growth and education of
children (Cristea & Cristea, 1989, p. 127). Likewise, Turliuc (2004, cited in
Bonchiș, et al., 2011, p. 10) emphasizes a series of aspects related to the
contemporary family: it is going through a period of transition in most European
countries; the structure of the family system, values, beliefs, and norms related to
premarital relationships and marriage are discussed again; the patterns of
relationships within the family system have changed, reflecting the divorce rate,
the increase in the number of working mothers, the decrease in the birth rate; the
value of independence is emphasized at the expense of traditional marriage;
personal autonomy tends to take the place of assuming marital commitments; the
norms regarding premarital sexual behavior, pregnancy and the maintenance of
marital relations have changed.
SEN (special educational needs) "denotes educational needs complementary
to the general objectives of school education, which require a school adapted to
individual particularities and/or characteristic of a learning deficiency/disorder, as
well as a specific intervention through appropriate rehabilitation/recovery"
(Cucoș, 2009, p. 601). The child with special educational needs (S.E.N.), beyond
his intellectual and developmental peculiarities, must be understood, supported
and motivated to gradually develop in all areas (Peter, & Kiss, 2013). He needs
teachers, psychopedagogues, speech therapists, therapists, physical therapists, etc.
well trained, with experience to be able to implement appropriate didactic methods
and strategies in the instructional-educational process and in the evaluation
process, taking into account the particularities of the psychophysical, mental,
intellectual and individual development of the beneficiaries of education in order
to integrate and accept them in society/community (Gherguț, 2013).
According to UNESCO, 2001 (apud MEN, 2019, p. 10): The goal of
inclusive education is not only to educate all those who learn in regular schools,

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but also to keep them in the family and community. Furthermore, through the even
broader vision of Education for All, learning is seen as a holistic concept –
something that takes place in the family and community, but also in schools and
other educational settings. That's why family and community participation is
essential.
In the field of education, recently, the notions of "collaboration" and
"partnership" are increasingly used in the relationships established between
parents and educators, therefore, educational partnership is the form of
communication, cooperation and collaboration in support of the child , at the level
of the educational process. It assumes a unity of educational requirements, options,
decisions and actions among educational factors. The educational partnership is
carried out permanently and together with the actual educational act (Albulescu,
Catalano, & Cristea, 2019, p. 496-497).
Regarding the collaborative attitude of the parents, respectively to the
attitudinal problems in the kindergarten-family relationship, reciprocity is the
element that is often missing in Romanian schools. Collaboration is the focus of
researchers, policy makers and educators. These are largely the responsibilities of
a progress made through the understanding and development of schools, of the
family. Mutual respect is one of the requirements that ensure a good partnership
between the family and the kindergarten (Booth, & Dunn, 2009, p. 235).
Agabrian and Millea (2005, cited in Anghelache, et al., 2017, p. 325) presents
the advantages of the kindergarten-family partnership: improving parents'
educational skills; developing parent leadership skills; connecting families with
community members; providing services and support to families. In order to
achieve an effective kindergarten-family partnership, the educator can involve the
family in certain instructive-educational activities. Thus, parents must be
supported to get to know their children, identify their needs and support their
development and harmonious growth. The family-kindergarten partnership, with
all that it implies, presents advantages for all the factors involved: educators,
parents, children. Regarding the concrete forms of collaboration between the
kindergarten and the family, it must be said that they differ depending on the goal
pursued and the concrete way of achieving it.
A graphical realization of the partnership would look something like this:

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KINDERGARTEN FAMILY

CHILD

Figure 1: The partnership: kindergarten-family-child (realised by authors)

Objectives of the study

• Identifying the role of the family in the education of children with

S.E.N. and the child-parent relationship
• Knowledge of the child's relations with S.E.N. with his family, of their
turmoil, of their soul life, of those states that have an important role in
the child's behavior, also reflected in the kindergarten results
(success/failure; adaptation/non-adaptation);
• Finding the most effective means and methods for a fruitful
collaboration with the family;

The research hypotheses

Specific hypothesis 1 (HS_1): We start from the premise that a good

collaboration between the kindergarten and the family of the child with S.E.N.
determines the improvement of the frequency of children with S.E.N. to the

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educational program and, consequently, an improvement in the cognitive and

social performances of preschoolers with S.E.N.

Method
Participants

A number of 48 subjects were included in this research, they being parents of

children with S.E.N. It is worth noting that in the pretest stage of the research, we
tried to get to know the participants involved in the research, the parents of
children with S.E.N., and in the posttest stage we asked them through a
questionnaire questions about their family climate, but also questions about the
collaboration of the family-kindergarten educational partnership. Sampling was
carried out on the basis of stratified randomization, survey based on a
questionnaire, taking into account gender, educational level, place of origin,
marital status, the type of family from which each participant of the study comes
and is carried out in the following graphs, both as a percentage as well as by
number:
50

40
42
30

20

10
6 87,5% 12,5%
0
1 2

Feminin Masculin

Figure 2. Distribution of subjects according to the gender of the participants

We observe a higher number of female participation, which attests to the fact

that mothers give a higher interest to children with S.E.N. and their problems,
being the ones who give birth to babies, the first to have contact and to form
relationships from an emotional point of view with children with S.E.N. and not
only.

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22

18
9

40,0%

32,7%
16,4%
4
7,3%

3,6%
2
Figure 3. Distribution of subjects according to their educational level

We observe that most parents have higher education (40% - Bachelor's

degree; 32.7% - Master's degree and 3.6% - doctoral studies) which is an essential
factor in the growth and education of children with S.E.N., eventually reaching
there is a fruitful collaboration between the family and the kindergarten, through
the realization of various educational projects and activities (non-formal).

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52,1%

25 47,9%

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RURAL URBAN

Figure 4. Distribution according to the environment of origin

We observe that 25 people (52.1%) live in the countryside, respectively 23

people (47.9%) live in the city. Regardless of their background, all participants
have studies and/or vocational school, to ensure children with S.E.N at least a
minimum of financial comfort, ultimately contributing to their education in
kindergarten and to the development of the family-kindergarten relationship and
partnership.

Instruments

The methods used during the research (descriptive study) aim to elucidate the
aspects mentioned above. For data collection, a questionnaire-based survey was
used as a method, the research tool being the questionnaire "Improving the family-
kindergarten educational partnership and the role of the family climate in the life
of the preschool child with S.E.N.", which includes a series of well-structured
questions. These in turn aim at the problem studied by us, namely, the
improvement of the family-kindergarten educational partnership and the role of
the family climate for the harmonious development of preschoolers with S.E.N.

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Presentation and interpretation of results

Item analysis

Analysis and interpretation of the results of the descriptive study carried out
with the help of the JASP program:

Item I.1 I.2 I.3 I.4 I.5 I.6 I.7 I.8 I.10 I.11 I.12 I.13 I.14 I.15

Valid 49 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48

Missing 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Mean 1.87 1.97 1.45 1.25 2.04 3.72 2.35 4.41 5.81 1.33 1.39 2.89

Median 2.00 2.00 1.00 1.00 2.00 4.00 2.00 5.00 7.00 1.00 1.00 4.00

Mode 2.00 2.00 1.00 1.00 2.00 4.00 2.00 5.00 7.00 1.00 1.00 4.00

Std.Deviation 0.64 0.14 0.54 0.48 0.45 0.84 1.10 1.23 1.80 0.51 0.76 1.34

Minimum 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

Maximum 3.00 2.00 3.00 3.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 5.00 7.00 3.00 4.00 4.00

Figure 5. Descriptive Statistics

From the analysis of the data contained in the table, it can be deduced that the
highest average was obtained for the items:
- Item 11: You consider that the lack of educational success of your
child is due to: the incompetence of educators/lack of a rhythmic
assessment/lack of interest on the part of the child/the child does
not feel confident in his/her own strength/the child is not happy in
kindergarten/inconsistency in controlling the program the child by
the parents. (m= 5.813, a.s=1.796)
- Item 10: What is the reason why you spend so little time discussing
educational issues with your child? (m=4.417, a.s=1.228)

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- Item 7: When do you visit your child's kindergarten? (m=3.729,

a.s=0.839)
The lowest averages were obtained for the following items:
- Item 9: Do you think you give enough time and attention to your
child's school problems? (m=1, a.s=0)
- Item 5: How do you consider your collaboration with the
kindergarten? (m=1.25, a.s=0.481)

Since results below 0.05 were obtained, we consider that the hypothesis of
the descriptive study is supported, namely, a good collaboration between the
kindergarten and the family of the child with S.E.N. determines the improvement
of the frequency of children with S.E.N. to the educational program and,
consequently, an improvement in the cognitive and social performances of
preschoolers with S.E.N.
For an easy illustration of the data, we present the following graph:

Figure 6. The mean for the items of the subscale regarding the improvement
of the family-kindergarten educational partnership and the role of the family
climate in the life of the preschool child with C.E.S.

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The last item of the questionnaire (What do you think the kindergarten should
do to improve the family-kindergarten collaboration?) was open-ended. We will
present some answers that we have divided into two categories:
I. The best answers:
- The use of all means of communication between the kindergarten and the
family, the availability of educators to be at the parents' disposal, practical
activities carried out at the kindergarten in which the parents can also
participate.
- More extracurricular activities.
- To inform the parent every time there are slippages in the child's behavior.
- To train parents in several educational activities.
- More openness to communication with parents. To communicate,
whatever happens with the parents!
- Open hours with the participation of parents.

II. Answers that surprised (pleased) us:

- I don't think he should do anything different from what he's doing now.
- The family must accept the decisions of the educator and the kindergarten.
- At the kindergarten my child attends, there is good collaboration between
the family and the kindergarten.
- Our collaboration with the kindergarten is very good.
- I don't think anything needs to be improved in our kindergarten. I am very
satisfied!

Conclusions

In conclusion, it is natural to ask ourselves the question: Who is the most

suitable person to carry out the training of the educator-parent? All those who,
through their profession, come into contact with the family and its problems:
doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, pedagogues, lawyers, sociologists, social
workers. However, not all of them have the necessary vocation. Those without a
vocation usually neglect this mandatory aspect of their profession, and those with
a vocation do it voluntarily and successfully.
Parent education requires a set of knowledge and skills, which no profession
currently exists can provide. Therefore, it is necessary that all those who will

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achieve it, be specially prepared. Parents' education is organized differently,

according to the social, economic and political conditions of each country ...
especially for that category of "special" parents. What is important is the fact that
it concerns and is in the center of attention more and more in the modern society,
in the contemporary society, in which the education of the parents is carried out
as well as the education of the adult.
We are in a time when the family is creating a new experience, related to the
demands of modern society. The social transformations that the family went
through and is going through, the new characteristics of its life, the new role of
women in society, the transformation and modernization of education (however
little), over the years, led to the increase of the role of the family in education
through the social integration of generations with special educational needs.
Following the research carried out, we can say that we encountered different
family typologies: "normal" families, single-parent families, families with
children with special educational needs, families that have adopted a child,
families where the children are raised by grandparents, mostly part of the time,
because the parents are away abroad. The results of the research are in line with
expectations: all parents care about their children's education, get involved in
collaboration with the kindergarten, keeping in close contact with the educators of
their child The parent-child, but also the child-parent relationship is even to be
appreciated. Parents manage to impose their point of view, some even have
measures to improve this relationship. Children with S.E.N. they are sometimes
open to their parents, but also to their teachers, considering them, most of the time,
even their best friends.

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