RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Early childhood education services create potentially optimal opportunities to identify and respond effectively to preschoolers' mental health problems. However, little is known about the knowledge, skills and competencies of early childhood educators in the area of mental health. The present study aimed to contribute to this field through conducting focus group interviews with professionals from public early childhood education centres in Greece. METHODS: Thirty-four educators attended five focus group meetings, with each group consisting of five to nine participants and two discussion facilitators. A thematic analysis was conducted using line-by-line open coding. Constructed codes from the wording used by the participants in the interviews were created, and constant comparisons for developing themes as well as seeking data not conforming to each theme were used independently by two researchers. At the end of this process, no new information was being provided and there was repetition in each of the categories. RESULTS: The analysis identified three themes in the data: risk factors for preschoolers' mental health problems, signs of preschoolers' mental health problems and practices of helping preschoolers with mental health problems. Results suggested that early childhood educators had satisfactory awareness of many preschoolers' mental health issues, although they showed a rather limited understanding in some domains. Moreover, they seemed to deliver inadequate practices in responding effectively to children's and families' mental health problems. CONCLUSIONS: Best practice training in working with preschoolers, families and mental health services seems essential for helping young children receive the best level of support through early identification and intervention services for possible mental health problems.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: The sudden breakdown of educational and care services following the COVID-19 outbreak caused severe implications to the educational and psychosocial well-being of students with additional needs. AIM: The present study investigates the perspectives of parents of students requiring additional provisions in relation to the schools' responsiveness against their children's educational and psychosocial needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on (non-) applied inclusive and empowerment practices of parenthood. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: A sample of 125 parents in Greece filled out a self-reported questionnaire providing information on four main themes: school organisation in accordance with the COVID-19 measures; distance education; support on transition from quarantine and remote education back to school; and parental empowerment. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: The data revealed that most of the participating parents felt poorly supported during the pandemic. The feeling of being left alone in supporting their children and in fully meeting their personal needs and emotions was also identified. The demographics of the participating parents with children with additional needs revealed an experiences mosaic in relation to the parents' level of education, the number of children who were present in their households, the children's gender as well as their level of school education (preschool- and primary school-aged or secondary school-aged pupils) and attendance of the school programme in regular or special schools. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Data suggest that regular and special schools in Greece, as orchestrated by the Ministry of Education, deployed practices that left students requiring additional provisions unsupported in relation to their educational and psychosocial needs while their parents felt disempowered during the whole period of the COVID-19 pandemic. A range of implications on a more effective support for families and their children with additional needs in alignment with the principles of inclusive education is detailed and discussed. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: The focus of research on the schools' responsiveness to the needs of students requiring additional provisions from the perspective of their parents is of critical importance as it may offer valuable insights pertaining to the school's inclusive policy practices and the promotion of empowering parent partnerships during crisis times. The knowledge gained by exploring parents' experiences will contribute significantly to inform modifications and changes in education delivery in crisis times so as school, as a social system, become more inclusive, supportive, and effective for pupils with additional needs. So far, little attention has been paid to the above-mentioned issues. In the current paper, the parents perspectives were explored through a self-reported questionnaire to reflect on the way schools responded to theirs and their children's educational and psychosocial needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the participating parents felt poorly supported. The feeling of being left alone in supporting their children and in fully meeting their personal needs and emotions was also identified. The demographics of the participating parents with children requiring additional provisions revealed an experiences mosaic in relation to the parents' level of education, the number of children who were present in their households, the children's gender as well as their level of school education (preschool and primary school or secondary school education) and attendance of the school programme in regular or special schools. A range of implications on a more effective support for families and their children with additional needs in alignment with the principles of inclusive education is detailed and discussed.