Injuries are part of growing up, and children, their parents and educators are exposed to them in the pre-school years. Mild injuries are essential for healthy growing up and are encountered by children on a daily basis. Educators must therefore be trained in first aid, but at the same time have an appropriate attitude towards the gradual escalation of risky behaviour In this thesis we investigate the number, type and rate of injuries that occur while children are in kindergarten, which we show separately by gender and age group, we examine the competence of educators in first aid, which we show separately by seniority, we find out their opinions on pre-protective behaviour. We also look at the correlation between self-assessed first aid knowledge and actual knowledge held by educators. We surveyed 50 kindergarten teachers from kindergartens across Slovenia. The data obtained from the closed questions were analysed using Microsoft Excel (mean values) and presented in tables or various graphical displays. The open-ended questions were divided into groups or categories and analysed. The strength of the correlation was measured by Pearson's correlation coefficient. The data showed that injuries are present in kindergarten and have been decreasing over the years. Mild injuries are the most common, occurring most frequently in the first age period, and there are no statistically significant gender differences. We found that those with the most seniority (more than 15 years) have the most knowledge, followed by those with the least seniority (up to 2 years) and lastly those with 3 to 15 years of seniority. In most cases, their actual knowledge was better than their self-assessed knowledge on a scale of 1 to 5 (1- I have no knowledge, 5- I have a lot of knowledge). Educators feel that parents today are too protective of their children. The reason for this is seen in the general public opinion of society or fear for their child. Most educators think that injuries are a normal part of growing up.
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