Journal of Special Treatment, 2023. Vol. 9. (4.) - full text

Bass (2004) examined the living conditions of families raising severely disabled children in the framework of national data collection. His research results reflect the circumstances nearly twenty years ago. The present study aims is to compare the research results of Bass to the present living conditions of interviewees who live in Berettyóújfalu in the 2020s, revealing the changes which have occurred in their lifestyle, family relationships, and future plans in the course of the past years. We used a qualitative interview to reveal the characteristics of the living conditions of ten families living in Berettyóújfalu. According to our research results, there are positive tendencies in the families’ social situation, relationship system or in the economic activity of the parents, but they still face hardship and drawbacks in accessing public services and ensuring their child’s long-term future.

Background and aim: Individuals with intellectual disability are expected to have significant limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviour, which affect the individual's ability to cope with social and practical situations. The present study is concerned with the assessment of the adaptive functioning of young people with moderate intellectual disability, which is part of a more complex study (this study will investigate the impact of adaptive functioning levels of students with moderate intellectual disability on parents' subjective perceptions). Method: the study presents the results of the assessment of adaptive functioning of students with moderate intellectual disability (n=9) using the Vineland Social Competence Scale. Results: the social age of the students in the study is significantly below their age, especially in the areas of communication, socialisation, and self-management. The study confirms previous findings (Hatos, 2008; Radványi, 2001) and highlights the need for teachers of students with moderate intellectual disabilities to develop these skills.

One of the aims of the present study is to briefly outline the issues related to gipsy and sportsmen in the literature, and to interpret the main challenges and potential barriers that arise in this context (Bailey, 2005; Sütő-Gabóda, 2013; Kovács, 2016; Faragó and Konczosné, 2017). We also aim to review the most important contexts related to the social background of athletes and, more narrowly, football academics as a possible option for breakout opportunities, based on the football academy system that has been operating in Hungary since 2001 (Rábai, 2021), and to examine specifically how the Debrecen Football Academy can help young people of gipsy origin to break out. The focus of our study is qualitative research, during which we interviewed the leaders of the Debrecen Football Academy in order to get answers to our questions about the gipsy children in the academy. During the interviews, the interviewees provide an overview of the recruitment, social background and typical career paths of gipsy children who have attended the academy so far, as well as a general discussion of their situation and opportunities. Based on our results, the children studying and developing at the football academies have a stable social background, and the Debrecen Football Academy also offers scholarship-like support opportunities that can help children from lower social status in the institution receive significant support. Academy leaders emphasized during the interviews that, although gipsy children often drop out of education, they have a number of successful careers behind them, suggesting that they too have every opportunity to break through the academy. Interviewees also said that they do their best to support gipsy children so that no one is disadvantaged because of economic or social deprivation.

Between 2017 and 2020, we participated in a national project led by the Education Office, called „Support for social inclusion and integration measures in public education” (EFOP-3.1.3-16-2016-00001), which we simply called "Kindergarten for Opportunities". The aim of the project was mainly to help kindergartens educate and develop disadvantaged and multiply disadvantaged Roma and Gypsy children. An important phase of the work was the survey, in which a specific assessment of skills was carried out with the active participation of the institutions, adapted to life in the kindergarten and based on the observations of the kindergarten teachers. In the present study, we focus on an important aspect of the survey, the study of social competencies. Results were obtained in three categories (self-images, social relations, and emotional-willing qualities), in five dimensions per category, from the kindergartens participating in the project in the three selected counties. In the total survey, the kindergartens provided information on a total of 1112 children, of which the number of responses received in the three counties analyzed by us was as follows: 259 in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, 178 in Hajdú-Bihar county and 271 in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county. So kindergarten teachers' statements regarding n=708 children were analyzed in this study. No significant difference can be observed in the results: only in a few cases did we experience a negative deviation in social competences in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county.

The present study focuses on contemporary children's books that reflect some form of special educational need. Since recently there has been an increase in the number of books on topic available in the children's book market, with publishing series, issuing the difficult life situations and on the presentation of ’otherness’, including learning disabilities, it is of great importance to take a glance at these publications. In this essay, my aim is to focus on how the texts are written and the language of representation. In particular, I will pay attention to the illustrations, which make a crucial part of the experience of reception and interpretation. With this analysis, my aim is to show how concretely or abstractly a particular educational need can be represented, whether it reinforces stereotypes or not, and how this may impact the connection to the phenomenon. The analysis of the texts also provides an opportunity to validate different attitudes, behaviours, and perspectives, and can thus contribute to sensitisation. The presentation of specific educational needs, with its positive or negative connotations, and the phenomenon of positive discrimination, are closely linked to methodological possibilities and practical implications of interpreting the texts. Here it is worthcalling attention to the concepts of helpful books, sensitisation and prevention, the relationship between these terms and literature, and reflecting on the close connection of the aesthetically shaped texts to these problems. Accordingly, the paper will first aim to explore the concept of special educational needs, then it will present its types to point out the difficulties of definition, the different approaches, and to define its own terminology. Similarly, this paper will take into account the terminology of literary studies and the perspectives relevant to this thesis. This will be followed by the analyses of the three preselected volumes which on the one hand ask whether the books are appropriate for the age group they are aimed at, while, on the other hand, they concern the possible directions for future methodological inquiries. Finally, the conclusion part summerises the results of the study and the controversies surrounding the presentation of the subject in children's books.

The study provides an overview of the portrayal and role of acceptance, empathy, and special treatment in the Harry Potter-series. The focus of the analysis revolves around the depiction of four different attitudes, which manifest in the relation between humans and magical objects, magical creatures, humanoid beings, and other humans. These four attitudes are represented by four main characters and are exemplified through their actions. The four attitudes are indifferent-passive, rejecting-active, accepting-active, and responsible-active. Due to their magical nature, the objects of the examined attitudes operate differently from what is expected by everyday logic, their needs and behaviors deviate from conventional societal norms, and they can even be intimidating and hazardous. The study illustrates how the novel series encourages readers to engage in the community through various examples and highlights the development of the underlying theme that the most powerful magical force is love, thus deserving acceptance, empathy, or special treatment by everyone. This contributes to the enhancement of readers' emotional intelligence and empathy skills, fostering the acceptance of diverse perspectives.

According to Teréz Virág (1998) a psychologist with regard to the 'mysteries' of the power of the puppet, three different spheres are worth investigating, namely the mysteries of the puppets, that of the child who plays with the object, and that of the puppeteer's. She views puppetry as creation, the puppeteer as the life-giver, and the puppet as an object of transition. When the aim is to develop the artistic methods as well as explore the 'general utility' of puppetry, it is worth further focusing on segments such as the making of the puppet, acting with the puppet, and perceiving the puppet play. These are three different viewpoints and three approaches. The study presents that the puppet in the child's hand is capable of embodying incomprehensible and insufferable feelings as well as making the unknowable accessible. In pedagogy today puppet play is believed to undoubtedly have a developmental impact, argued for widely with conventions, but it seems that there is still a lack of sincerely understanding of the being of the puppet and its mechanism of action, its principal essence. In my study, I elaborate on the questions of why and how puppet play can be of assistance, and what the puppet can actually mean in the child's hands. The puppet is an object, that makes a motion as it is assuming a role and takes action while portraying this role, it substitutes for someone or something. Being the puppet presupposes a space for the play, in which it takes the place of this someone/something by replacing what it represents. The primary goal of the study is to show that by playing with an object, a puppet lays a bridge in an abstract way between the visible and the invisible world, enabling thus art pedagogy to develop the child with its complex mode of action. The psychological mechanism of identification is best characterized by the eagerness to act, and the artistic genre of puppet play, providing the stage for action, is eminently capable of satisfying this urge. In the creative process, the approach of animation, the metaphorical thinking of the puppeteer, the abstraction as well as the development of the related assertive skills rely on all the operations of thinking; also, the simultaneity of the multi-lateral perception, the complex interpretation of communication play important roles.

Animal assistance used among university students is not unknown, numerous foreign examples prove its valid existence. The application aimed at university students appeared in the United States of America, but nowadays it is used in many countries around the world. The emergence of assistance dogs in higher education is related to the scientific interest aimed at discovering and measuring the causes of the positive effects experienced during the use of assistance animals. Simultaneously with the introduction of animal assistance training at the University of Debrecen Faculty of Education for Children and Special Educational Needs, the university student sensitization program began in 2021, within the framework of which students can meet the assistance dog serving on the university campus on a daily basis. The first university student sensitizer dog of the country has a multifaceted task, it not only performs tasks in the field of animal-assisted activity but also fulfills a socialization role with its presence, helping many to rethink their ideas about keeping animals. The study presents this socialization program.

In our paper, we deal with the significance of learning languages at an early age. The research aimed to explore how the teaching methods employed in kindergartens have altered with the change of the political regime in 1989–90. A case-study was conducted using semi-structured interviews (n=7) with early childhood educators and language teachers in 2016/2017. Oral history method was used because no written material was produced. Based on information we received from the informants and local authorities, early English activities were available in 68% of kindergartens in the North-East Hungarian city when the research was undertaken. The number of kindergartens which organize playbased foreign language practices has been increasing since the 1990s. In the beginning, providing educational personnal was the most difficult task. Using audio-visual devices and props has been highly important, and Early Childhood Educators have been doing their best when working with children aged 4–7. However, there are differences too, due to the development of technology. 

The current paper aims to shed light on the problem of Roma students' school performance through the perception of teachers. We examine the phenomenon at the level of locality, relying on qualitative research methodology. The empirical data collection was carried out at the István Király Baptist Primary School in Kótaj, in the county of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, during which semi-structured interviews were recorded (N=15).

In the history of special education in Hungary, after the establishment and successful operation of segregated special education institutions with a long history, public education has come to many forms of co-education, the paths of which are still not unhindered. These problems point to the need for many changes in the way the education system works. Without constant and permanent development of teachers and innovative innovations in learning methods, success can hardly be expected. But there are other important issues to be addressed. The present study focuses primarily on the direction in which trends can be found in the light of the past. While exploring the current issues, we would like to provide a new framework for interpretation by highlighting and linking some of the results of two recently completed studies (Szabóné, 2022; Trembulyák, 2022) and by placing them in the context of the topic of the study. The study also aims to draw attention to the current trend that the school life of pupils with special educational needs who have participated in co-education at the primary level becomes more difficult as they progress to secondary education. This can significantly reduce not only their career choices but also their opportunities for successful social integration.

On behalf of the Institute of Special Education of the Faculty of Education for Children and Special Educational Needs of the University of Debrecen (Hungary) and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Special Treatment [Különleges Bánásmód] (Debrecen) we kindly invite you to 9th ‘Special Treatment’ International Interdisciplinary Scientific Conference.

Date of the conference:  12 April 2024

Conference venue: University of Debrecen Faculty of Education for Children and Special Educational Needs,