How I Feel About My School-Adaptation and Validation of an Educational Well-Being Measure among Young Children in Sweden.

The well-being of children has received increasing attention in recent years. Nevertheless, we lack adequate brief self-report tools that enable us to consider young children's well-being in policy evaluations and educational research. This study describes the adaptation and first validation of the Swedish version of How I Feel About My School (HIFAMS), a subjective well-being questionnaire suitable for children aged 4 to 12 years, which was originally developed in the United Kingdom (UK). Descriptive statistics with analysis of psychometric properties and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) are based on the perceived well-being of 228 children in preschool and school aged 5 to 8 years old. The CFA endorsed a good fit to a one-factor model, and the scale showed moderate internal consistency (rα = 0.63). The results are largely in line with the findings of the original HIFAMS. We conclude that the Swedish version can be applied in early preschool/school settings and could provide first-hand information about children's well-being from the first years of education until elementary school grades. Practitioners in early education settings might benefit from HIFAMS assessments when seeking to understand children's current well-being to provide support to children with special educational needs or children at risk for mental health issues. Researchers could use the HIFAMS to standardize child well-being evaluations in policy evaluations and interventional studies

Supporting children’s social play with peer-based intervention and instruction in four inclusive Swedish preschools

This multiple case study investigated a peer-based intervention and instruction (PBII) for social play, Play Time/Social Time (PT/ST), in four inclusive Swedish preschools. PT/ST contains 28 learning activities where children playfully practice six social skills with significance for social play and friendships. One teacher in each preschool was trained and instructed to implement PT/ST, two with coaching early in the implementation, and two without. At each preschool, one child with special educational needs (SEN) in social play (n = 4) and one or two socially skilled peers (n = 6) participated. The study aimed to explore how the teachers perceived the influence of PT/ST on social engagement and social play skills in the children with SEN, with/without coaching, and if PT/ST supported social play between the children with and without SEN. It also aimed to examine the feasibility of PT/ST and the influence on preschool inclusion quality in the preschools, with/without coaching. Observational assessments and video observations were used. The results indicate that PT/ST was beneficial for the children with SEN to engage in social play with peers and practice social skills, and for the preschool’s inclusion quality regarding involvement in peer interactions and guidance in play, both with/without coaching for the teachers. However, the coaching strengthened the intervention fidelity. Social play occurred between the children with and without SEN in activities where they seemed similarly attracted by the toys and play materials and when they all could engage in the play goals, tasks, and roles. For this, they sometimes needed instructions and encouragement from the teachers

Perceptions of Members in Parents’ Associations for Children with Disabilities of their Children’s Opportunities to Play

Non peer reviewe

Parents of a child with disabilities and their views about their child’s play

Non peer reviewe

Users' Needs Report on Play for Children with Disabilities. Parents' and children's views

The needs of children and parents about play when the child has a disability are explored by mean on surveys to disability associations and families were collected during 2016 in 30 countries by members of the EU COST LUDI network Play for children with disability.The users' needs concerning play for children with disabilities are also explored by mean of case studies at a country level, based on literature reviews of avialable reports and emprirical studies in Finland, Lithuania and Sweden

Child care and pre-schools in Sweden: an overview of practice, tendencies and research.

The system and policy for child care and pre-school education in Sweden are overviewed: its structure and goals in the context of the Swedish society and its general welfare system are described. New challenges and actual problematic tendencies revealed by national evaluations and research are identified: the increasing quality variation, the broader attendance, the lack of qualified teachers, a narrowly interpretation of the curriculum, the rising numbers of children identified as having special educational needs. Some interpretations of the relationships among these emerging factors are suggested.L’articolo descrive il sistema dei servizi educativi per la prima infanzia in Svezia, le sue strutture e i suoi obiettivi nel contesto della societá svedese, in relazione al sistema di welfare. Vengono evidenziate alcune tendenze problematiche e difficoltà emergenti, messe in rilievo dalle valutazioni nazionali e dalla ricerca: l’incremento nella variazione della qualità, la più ampia frequenza, la mancanza di insegnanti qualificati, l’interpretazione limitata dei programmi, l’aumento del numero dei bambini identificati come aventi bisogno di sostegno. Vengono anche suggerite alcune interpretazioni che permettono di comprendere le relazioni tra questi fattori

Support and Resistance : Ambivalence in Special Education

Support and Resistance discusses the interaction between pupils of different abilities and the school organisation. The dissertation has its point of departure in the views of pupils, both those with special support and their classmates. It outlines how school is – and how it should be – in the views of schoolchildren. The results show that the presence in a class of a child with disability correlates with better class climate. Contradictions between goals and values in the educational system are supposedly solved with a compartmentalisation of goals and values, in which the differentiated settings take more responsibility for the goals of socialisation and democratic participation, while the regular settings concentrate on the goals of selection and achievement. This tends to be unsatisfactory, however. The theoretical framework of the dissertation relates to concepts from the fields of sociology, group psychology, psychoanalysis, the history of ideas and the history of education. The empirical studies concern pupils’ self-concept, their perceptions of class climate and school in relation to organisational aspects of learning settings such as homogeneity/heterogeneity, the special support offered at school, the presence of differentiated settings and the opportunity of participation. These studies are based upon questionnaires and texts written by children in comprehensive schools, and on interviews and observations of educational settings. The results and their implications are related to the goals of socialisation, democratic education and social participation. This work is of interest to educators, school administrators, policy-makers and scholars in the fields of education, special education and disability research

The experiences of mental health and well-being of Swedish children and youth with a focus on educational situations : Some results and reflections from a review of qualitative studies

The practice of including in reviews people’s experiences and perceptions, which are collected with non-experimental and qualitative studies, has been developed recently in the field of mental health studies. These approaches and methodologies have inspired the review of research on Swedish children and adolescents experiences of mental health and well being, with a focus on their educational situation, that was conducted as a part of a systematic review of research on School Learning and Mental health, performed by appointment of the Royal Academy of Sciences. The aim of the review was to gather testimonies that can give indications of the experiences of mental health and well being in this specific context. The results from the studies that were relevant for the aims of the review are structured in four themes: general views, protective factors, risk factors, individual factors. They are presented in a narrative synthesis, giving a particular weight to the direct and indirect report of children’s and adolescents’ own views. The adolescents defined mental health as emotional experiences, seen both as internal feelings and as relational feelings. Family, friends and educational environments as social and physical environments were perceived as determinants of mental health. A great number of feelings were related to school, both related to satisfaction and pain, in particular when the school attendance is presented as an obligation. Harassment and rejection at school, performance stress, worries about grades and future prospects could be threats against self-worth and self-esteem, while teachers that do not care could generate negative experiences. Various kind of stress could be described and various strategies to resist stressful situations: for instance emotional support, safety and involvement. The educational environments can be an arena for social, cognitive and emotional experiences, relationships and accomplishments that are enriching the individuals and increase their well being. General structural characteristics of the educational environments may also affect well being in different directions: performance, evaluation and feedback, freedom of choice and responsibility for the future may be perceived as a burden. The following reflections can be made: the experiences of children and adolescents change when they grow older, go through developmental processes and encounter different educational situations; the studies reporting views of younger children on the matters of this review were less well represented; the negative experiences may be expressed in rather cautious and non dramatic terms by younger children; there are unique contribution of the review of qualitative studies, but also several interesting correspondences with the results of the review of quantitative studies.Barns och ungdomars psykiska häls

Stoccolma: dove la questione dei bambini non è solo una questione privata

In Svezia, ancor oggi, persiste un sistema di Welfare che dedica molte risorse alle politiche per l'infanzia e al sostegno delle famiglie. Ció si traduce sia sul piano politico, sia su quello della produzione culturale, consolidando un diffuso atteggiamento di tutela e cura dei minori, ampiamente dimostrato nella dimensione quotidiana

Users' Needs Report on Play for Children with Disabilities. Parents' and children's views

The needs of children and parents about play when the child has a disability are explored by mean on surveys to disability associations and families were collected during 2016 in 30 countries by members of the EU COST LUDI network Play for children with disability.The users' needs concerning play for children with disabilities are also explored by mean of case studies at a country level, based on literature reviews of avialable reports and emprirical studies in Finland, Lithuania and Sweden