Preschool period is very important for children's growth. Preschool period is also important for children with special needs, because we need to discover their problems, disabilities or obstacles as soon as possible. In Slovenia preschool children with special needs are divided in one of the three different educational programs definite by law. In ordinary preschool program they carry out special program for children with special needs. This special program has extra professional assistance, where each child has their own individual program and on that program is based professional assistance. To provide the best assistance, we need a group of experts, which are in constant interaction, who help each others with knowledge, information and they work together for the greater good, which is helping children with special needs. People who work with children with special needs must have professionally knowledge, specific skills, capabilities and experiences in this area. Expert’s attitudes in the field of the team work with children with special needs are very important. Some professionals have positive attitudes to including children with special needs in programs with ordinary children; on the other hand some has negative attitudes and fear for that kind of education and arrangement. Self perception of competency usually affects on the attitudes and that is why we made a research in Slovenian preschools. In the empirical part of the thesis we are curious, how preschool professionals feel their competences of teamwork with children with special needs. We survey 113 preschool teachers and their assistants. Teachers have different level of education and different work experiences with children with special needs. Information was anonymous and analyzed with SPSS program and 1-ka. The result of the survey shows us that preschool professionals do not feel completely competent for that kind of work. Statistics outcome show us that their competence perception vary on the workplace and the level of education, whereas there is no significant statistic correlation regardless to years of service. We research also the attitudes of preschool professionals to the children with special needs and find out that they have neutral point of view on those children. There is no important statistic difference among their education, workplace or years of service. There are positive attitudes based on teamwork with the children with special needs. The only statistically important difference found is different workplace. There are statistically important correlation between attitudes to teamwork and perception of their competences for teamwork with children with special needs. There is no positive important statistic correlation between their attitudes to children with special needs and perception of their own competences. With the help of this research, we find out, that preschool professionals feel their effectiveness with teamwork with children with special needs as highly important.
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