The Roma community in Slovenia is recognized as a minority community, which has been pushed to the margins of society due to the great differences between Roma and Slovenian culture. This is reflected in the remoteness or the closedness and underdevelopment of the settlements in which this population lives, unemployment and general illiteracy (less than 50% of Roma pupils complete primary school) and, consequently, lower socio-economic status (SES). Due to the uninspiring environment in which Roma children grow up, their preconditions for success in school are much more limited than for most of their peers in the majority population. Even if kindergarten helps to reduce the gap between children coming from lower and higher SES, Roma children mostly do not attend it before entering school. The research is therefore focused on working with the pre-school Roma population, among which school preparation activities were carried out.
The purpose of the research was to design and implement activities for preschool Roma children and to observe their progress in various areas: motor skills, attention and concentration, memory, speech and language, and the socio-emotional field. Four children took part in the research. I determined the general functioning of the children involved in the meetings based on the assessment scale. I determined their strengths and weaknesses and where their peculiarities were manifested. I was also interested in the the frequency of attendancy at our meetings and backgrounds of their family environments, which I got to know through filling out the assessment scale. The activities were designed in accordance with the Kindergarten Curriculum and the Appendix to the Kindergarten Curriculum for Working with Roma Children. They were also adapted to the interests and characteristics of children. Various concrete materials (natural and everyday materials, cubes, pictorial materials and some other didactic materials) and approaches (movement activities, play, singing and dancing) were used. The analysis of all parts of the family environment, planning and implementation of training) provided a more in-depth understanding of the observed progress of each child.
The results of the first and final evaluation show the effectiveness of the remaining activities, as at least minimal progress was observed in all assessment areas in all children. The successfulness of implementation of activities was observed, as well as the hurdles that limit the child's progress (family cooperation with parents, ignorance of cultures, belief of professionals, material and spatial conditions, etc.) were also analyzed. For a better understanding of the ways of including Roma children in the Slovenian preschools, a few kindergartens were contacted and they shared their experiences. Based on all the findings, brief guidelines of ideas for activities that can help integrate Roma children into the preschool environment were prepared for teachers, social workers and other professionals.
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