돌봄 취약계층 맞춤형 육아지원 방안 연구(Ⅰ): 장애 영유아를 중심으로

Abstract

This study was conducted as the first part of a five-year-long “Individualized Child Care Supporting Improvement Plans for Children of Vulnerable Class” project that aims to examine the current state of the vulnerable class and the challenges they face regarding child care supports. In a society dominated by non-disabled people, parents of children with disabilities and their parenting situations must be considered in planning and implementing any care-related policy. In the field of early childhood education and care, there has been rapid changes such as the enforcement of Nuri Curriculum and many policy-related movements on the subject of care-education integration. In the time of significant changes, this study aims to explore and examine the present child care support at homes and education services for children with special needs. This study intends to provide an overarching support plan that includes family services and highly qualified education‧care for children with disabilities. In order to do so, literature review was conducted on the registration status of children with special needs, their current education‧care services, governmental supports, relevant laws and policies. Related research in the national and international field were analyzed as well. In this study, a survey was conducted on 1,500 participants who were either teacher, parent, or the head of 500 education‧care institutions for children with special needs. To gain understandings of the services and parenting those children received, individual interviews or focus group interviews were completed on 45 participants among the total respondents. As outcomes, the ongoing support offered by varying institutions were examined and the needs were studied in-depth with exploring parenting issues and needs as well. Through the expert opinion survey, this study also organized important points for consideration in the implementation of education‧care integration plan, and addressed the issue of primary school entrance (and delay) for the children with disabilities. Major findings and suggestions are as following: as for institution-wide improvement plans, the enhancing of individualized support within the Nuri Curriculum for children with special needs is suggested. Secondly, special education schools should offer specialized services for disabled children, considering their unique needs. Additional suggestions include providing teachers' support systems with setting up special education classes in private kindergartens. In child care centers and kindergartens where there are no early childhood special education teachers, provision of itinerant consultants for supporting general early childhood education teachers is recommended. Thirdly, creating a special education teacher pool at a local government level, and fourthly, the improvement of teachers’ working conditions and the stabilizing the pool of permanent educators are proposed. Lastly, the standardization of support services and programs for children with special needs at Child Care Support Centers are also needed. In the aspect of family support, we suggest establishing programs that support siblings of children with special needs, offering one-stop service network, promoting communication of information among families, and launching parent-to-parent programs through which more experienced parents can mentor novice parents.