The role of kindergarten teacher in the speech development of children with speech and language disorders is of vital importance because a kindergarten teacher, as well as child's parents, plays a significant role in encouraging speech development in pre-school children. Also important is the relation between a kindergarten teacher and children with 'deficit' because it is the kindergarten teacher who creates a positive and pleasant atmosphere in the playroom. Kindergarten teacher can enrich the children with values and experiences on the importance of mutual acceptance regardless of one's identity, appearance and possessions, mutual help, cooperation and tolerance. In addition, kindergarten teacher plans and incorporates into every-day work the situations allowing the children to use speech, listen to their peers (dialogue) and thus to acquire the ability to learn, communicate and adopt positive social relations.
In the theoretical part of the master's thesis, I identified the children with special needs, the documents on this subject matter, and the children entitled to individualisation or the-so-called individual approach. I have presented in detail the groups of children with speech and language disorders, the causes for such disorders, and areas of work where the deviations in development are recorded most often. Further, we analysed the areas where speech and languages disorders occur, and the documents on children with the mentioned disorders. Then I identified the strategies of educating and schooling of children with speech and language disorders in the Republic of Slovenia, and the speech development in pre-school children. In the last chapter of the theoretical part, I described the role of kindergarten teacher in working with children with speech and language disorders.
In the empirical part of the thesis, I established the goals of my survey which was set to determine how kindergarten teachers adapt their work when dealing with children with speech and language disorders, and whether there are any differences in teachers' work with such children with regard to the period of their employment.
In the end of the thesis, I provided conclusions focusing on the results of the survey, highlighted the approaches to children with speech and language disorders, and activities in the field of language proposed by kindergarten teachers, as well as outlined the measures for the improvement of the current situation.
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