In my master’s thesis I researched the competency of school counsellors in primary schools for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties (hereinafter EBD). Furthermore, I researched the differences and similarities of working with pupils with EBD in primary schools according to the profile of the school counsellor (psychologist, social pedagogue, and social worker) and how working with pupils with EBD went during the COVID-19 pandemic and working from home. In the theoretical part, I first introduce the special needs children, while mostly focusing on the group of children with EBD, while afterwards describing social work in primary schools and social work regarding children with EBD. I conclude the theoretical part with a chapter dedicated to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on counselling work in primary schools. The empirical part consists of qualitative research. I gathered the information via partially standardised interviews with nine school counsellors employed in Slovenian primary schools, who are educated social pedagogues/social workers/psychologists. I concluded that the interviewees mostly feel competent enough on a basic level for work with pupils with EBD, whereas some do not feel competent enough for harder cases of EBD, while also expressing the need for new knowledge and skills to work with such pupils and better support from external institutions. School counsellors in primary schools usually recognise EBD after learning about the symptoms from others (teachers, parents, classmates etc.), while sometimes the children themselves tell them about their problems. Among the recognisable signs, those that point to externalised difficulties predominate, but there are less recognisable signs for internalised difficulties. Every pupil with EBD is subject to an individualised helping process which is derived from their needs. Most important to the school counsellors is the establishment of a safe and trustworthy relationship, based on respect towards the pupil. School counsellors use a wide variety of methods and techniques during their work, the most common one being conversation. While working with pupils with EBD, school counsellors cooperate with their peers, parents, teachers and, if needed, external institutions. Working from home with pupils with EBD was difficult, the problem being a lack of personal contact and privacy, and the inability to react in an emphatic manner. EBD have worsened during times of working from home. Even pupils, who have previously not exhibited signs of EBD, did so after. EBD worsened with those, who suffered from them even before the pandemic. After schools closed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, school counsellors did not feel competent enough for working from home with pupils with EBD. They recognised the need for additional support, and better and duly instructions from the government regarding remote work with children with EBD.
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