Assessment of the Quality of the Kindergarten Educational Environment for Children with ASD: ECERS-R

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Abstract

Objectives. When providing comprehensive support for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), it is necessary to create a special educational environment. A study was conducted on the quality of the educational environment of a preschool educational organization for children with ASD using the Early Childhood Environmental Assessment Scale (ECERS-R) tool, which was originally designed to assess the environment in preschools for typically developing children.

Methods. The ECERS-R diagnostic methodology evaluates the main components of the educational environment in a preschool organization across seven areas: Space and Furnishings; Personal Care Routines; Language — Reasoning; Activitie; Interaction; Program Structure; Parents and Staff. In 10 groups of children aged 2 to 8 years of special kindergarten for children with ASD “WE ARE TOGETHER”, quality monitoring of the preschool’s work was carried out by both external and internal (staff) experts.

Results. The strongest aspects of the kindergarten’s educational environment for children with ASD were identified as “Staff-Child Interaction” and “Program Structure”. Lower scores were obtained in the areas of “Language — Reasoning” and “Activities”. The “Space and Furnishings” was rated similarly by both external and internal experts (4.5 points), which indirectly indicates the objectivity of the expert assessment. Internal experts rated their own performance in caring for children with ASD lower, at 3.4 points, while external experts rated the difficulty of caring for children with ASD slightly higher, at 3.6 points.

Conclusions. In general, kindergarten staff, who work with children in this educational environment on a daily basis, rated its quality significantly higher than external experts. This discrepancy is likely due to the specific nature of the educational environment for children with ASD, as well as the individual characteristics of the children themselves. For a qualitative assessment of the educational environment using ECERS-R in a kindergarten with a special focus, the tool needs to be adapted to better meet the special educational needs of the children. Adding subscales for different conditions seems feasible.

General Information

Keywords: autism spectrum disorders (ASD); preschool age; comprehensive assessment of the quality of the educational environment; Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales (ECERS-R); tool; kindergarten for children with ASD “WE ARE TOGETHER”; monitoring

Journal rubric: Diagnostic Tools

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/autdd.2024220304

Funding. This work was supported by the Strategic Academic Leadership Program of Kazan Federal University (PRIORITY-2030)

Received: 30.10.2023

Accepted:

For citation: Sadretdinova E.A., Bashinova S.N., Nigmatullina I.A., Vasina V.V. Assessment of the Quality of the Kindergarten Educational Environment for Children with ASD: ECERS-R. Autizm i narusheniya razvitiya = Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2024. Vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 30–39. DOI: 10.17759/autdd.2024220304. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Elvira A. Sadretdinova, PhD in Psychology, associate professor, Associate Professor of the Department of Preschool Education, Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8808-6205, e-mail: ellsah@bk.ru

Svetlana N. Bashinova, PhD in Psychology, associate professor, Associate Professor of the Department of Preschool Education , Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5124-7439, e-mail: svetlana-bashinova@mail.ru

Irina A. Nigmatullina, PhD in Education, Associate Professor, Institute of Psychology and Education, Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education — Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, Kazan, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6151-6164, e-mail: irinigma@mail.ru

Veronika V. Vasina, PhD in Psychology, Associate Professor, Chair of Psychology and Pedagogy of Special Education, Kazan Federal University, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4553-6442, e-mail: virash1@mail.ru

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