Lilly Eriksson

Perceived participation. A comparison of students with disabilities and students without disabilities

According to a recent study (Almqvist & Granlund, accepted), participation is not strongly related to type and degree of disability but probably to the context of the individual as well as generic personal factors. Such diverse factors can over time become orchestrated and pull the development of individuals with disability in a certain direction. This study compares how 959 students with and without disabilities in two age‐groups 7–12 and 13–17 perceive their participation in school activities. The main method of analysis is one‐way‐ANOVA. The result indicates that students without disabilities rated their perceived participation higher, especially in unstructured “free”; activities. Further, students without disabilities experience a higher degree of autonomy and rate the availability of school activities as higher. Students with disabilities rate their interaction with teachers as better and more frequent, but their interaction with peers as less frequent. These differences increase with age and may reinforce a stigmatization process.

Utility of International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health's participation dimension in assigning ICF codes to items from extant rating instruments.

OBJECTIVES Firstly to investigate the utility of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Healths (ICFs) participation dimension when items from extant questionnaires focusing on participation were assigned to ICF codes on an item-by-item basis; and, secondly, to conduct a preliminary investigation of the theoretical assumption expressed in ICF that ICFs environment component interacts with body function and participation components. DESIGN A person-based, descriptive study. SUBJECTS The sample comprised students with disabilities (n = 448), their parents/relatives (n = 414), their teachers/managers (n = 418) and special education consultants (n = 110). METHODS Items from original surveys were used. Participation of students with disabilities: a survey of participation in school activities, The Arcs Self-Determination Scale, Perceived interaction-questionnaire, Environments survey, The Abilities Index. Data were analysed with the help of ANOVA, Scheffé pair-wise comparisons, correlation analysis and cluster analysis. RESULTS The study partly confirmed the utility of ICF participation dimension in assigning codes to items from extant instruments. Moderate statistical correlations between participation chapters and between items from different ICF dimensions were found. Cluster analysis resulted in groups with participation patterns not related to type of disability. CONCLUSION Items from extant instruments can be assigned to ICF participation codes, but further item analyses and a more extensive questionnaire base are needed.

The relationship between school environment and participation for students with disabilities.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between participation in school activities of students with disabilities and their school environment. Children and youths with disabilities rated their own participation in school activities while teachers and special education counsellors rated the students school environment. Statistical methods used in this study were the Pearsons correlation coefficient and one-way-ANOVA. The results revealed that neither the amount of support given nor the general school environment was statistically related to students’ participation. Further, the individuals specific environment, especially when rated as availability to activities by the students themselves, was related to students’ participation. This might indicate that when investigating important environmental factors related to participation, students’ own perceptions of his/her niches is important to investigate. The support students were given related more to type and number of disabilities than to students’ participation.

“Special Support” in Preschools in Sweden : Preschool staff's definition of the construct

This study investigates the definitions of the construct “young children in need of special support” given by preschool staff in Sweden in 540 preschool units. The study has a mixed‐methods design based on qualitative analysis of an open‐ended question and quantitative analysis of questionnaire responses. The results reveal two general perspectives in definitions of the construct, a child perspective and an organisational perspective. Units with a child perspective had a higher proportion of children in need of special support, especially girls. The study highlights that the term “children in need of special support” is partially socially constructed and is partially based on perceived child characteristics. The perceptions of what is considered to be a child in need of special support held by staff in a unit may impact on the services provided to children in need of special support.