| Abstract [eng] |
The theoretical analysis of the concept of competence and peculiarity of professional training of the specialists, who work with early and preschool age children with special needs and their families, had been performed in this work. The hypothesis stating that the principles of professional training of Lithuanian specialists, who work with early and preschool age children with special needs and their families, partly matches the content of the European programme, which resumes the principles of professional training for the early intervention specialists. The hypothesis also states that professional competence is gained through the process of practice. The qualitative investigation, whose aim was to analyze what professional competence is gained by the specialists, who work with early and preschool age children with special needs and their families (these are the early intervention specialists), during the university studies and courses of professional improvement and evaluate the suitability of their present competence for the work in the field of the early intervention, had been performed. The data had been collected using the open type of questionnaire, which was prepared according to the main regulations of the Leonardo da Vinci project “The European passport of the early childhood intervention specialists’ training” (EBIFF). During the investigation, the specialists along with the investigator had comprehensively described knowledge and skills they already had referring to official documents (appendixes of bachelors’ and masters’ diplomas and other documents proving their competence). Professional competence of the specialists had been evaluated with having in mind the content of professional training. The quantitative analysis of the data had been performed using computer program SPSS 11.0 and graphical analysis – using MS Excel 2003 computer program. 25 specialists (special pedagogues, logopedic therapists, psychologists, preschool raising pedagogues, kinetic therapists), who work at preschool institutions and departments of the early rehabilitation for infants and preschool children with special needs and their families, had participated in the investigation process. The empirical part of the thesis examines the dominative, general, specific and integrated or lacking content of the specialists’ professional training, as well as the level of these specialists’ professional training (according to the stages of studies) and the specialists’ opinion about their own professional preparation. The key findings of the empirical investigation: 1. Lithuanian early intervention system is functional and matches the main rules, though there are fields, which should be improved. One of these – the improvement of the training of the early intervention specialists by developing and deepening of the professional competence that is relative to the field of the early childhood intervention. 2. The content of professional training varies for the different specialists working in the field on the early childhood intervention, though all specialists’ professional training is dominated with the competence, which is needed for the intervention to be performed. The most weakly expressed is specific competence, which is related to the performed functions. Deeper and systematic knowledge that is gained by the specialists, is closely related to the field, in which these specialists work, and to the purposive group they are working with. 3. In specialists’ opinion, they have gained knowledge, skills and wider personal competence in the process of practice, too. Wider personal competence is valued more than knowledge and skills in the same field by the participants of the investigation, because they are related to the personal and professional values. 4. The investigation of professional competence of the specialists, who work with early and preschool age children with special needs and their families, allows to evaluate the present of the early intervention specialists’ training in Lithuania and foresee the directions for its improvement. 5. The hypothesis, claiming that the content of professional training of Lithuanian specialists’, who work with infants and preschool children with special needs and their families, partly matches the content of the European programme, which resumes the principles of professional training for the early intervention specialists, had been confirmed. Specialists’ opinion about their own professional competence confirmed proposition that professional competence is also gained in the process of practice. Key words: competence; early intervention; a child with special needs; special upbringing needs. |
