Abstract:

Preschool is a place, where social problems are as visible as in other educational institutions. It means at the level of the first institutionalized form of education, which is preschool, an issue can occur that also a “different” person in terms of his/her psychophysical development is the subject of education. Such problems, as confirmed by some research, refer not only to vehicles, elevators, but also to internal opposition, anxiety of able-bodied people to communing with somebody who looks different and has different psychophysical possibilities.

The analysis of cultural determinants of attitudes towards people with disabilities allows to assume that values and standards of intercultural features such as vertical posture or verbal communication, which are widespread in the society, are the basis of transmission of knowledge and attitude towards such people. It means the attitude of the society towards disabled people does not change as quickly as it may be expected and their problems are still trivialized and underestimated.

The preschool can be a place to implement humane ideas that result from international documents. It may be the first school of democracy for the pupils, where they can learn acceptance of psychophysical differences of a person with disabilities and common life with such a person. All experiences that a person acquires at particular stages of his or her life – both negative and positive – remain trace in his or her psyche and shape personality. Hence, it is essential which experiences the disabled and able-bodied children acquire at the stage of early education. A child at the preschool age is oriented towards discovering diversity in the world of physical objects, but also towards exploring social worlds of peers and adults. It means the child can undertake exploration activities both to learn about the mechanism of wheelchair as well as about the disabled college, and consequently can create mental cognitive representation of the person and the object, which are already familiar to him/her. Such arguments justify the sense of combining disabled and able-bodied children to play and learn. They also explain why able-bodied children get used to disabilities of their peers so quickly. The experiences collected by children, parents, teachers in contacts with children with special education needs translate into values, attitudes, stereotypes that reflect culture of particular generation.

Analyzing the literature regarding this issue, the questions arise, which do not reflect current state of the play. Therefore, an attempt has been made to respond questions concerning current situation of the integration in preschools. The goal of this study is to investigate and answer following questions: Are the children with disabilities integrated with able-bodied children in the preschool? Were the parents guided by when sending their children to an integrative preschool? Does the able-bodied / disabled child fully accept his or her mates?

The study used one-time survey with the use of survey questionnaire in the balanced group, which was composed of parents of disabled and able-bodied children and their teachers. The study was conducted in two integrative preschools in Czestochowa, Poland.

It was a one-stage study and comprised 30 people of pedagogical staff, 60 parents of able-bodied children and 20 parents of children with disabilities.

Keywords:

Integrative system of teaching and education, social integration, integrative preschool, revalidation, disability, special education needs.