INFLUENCE OF SPECIAL EDUCATORS AND REHABILITATORS’ WORK IN REGULAR SCHOOL ON PEER RELATIONSHIP AMONG STUDENTS WITH DELAYED COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Целта на истражувањето е да се согледа дали работата на специјалните едукатори и рехабилитатори влијае позитивно на односот со врсниците меѓу учениците со задоцнет когнитивен развој. Акцентот беше ставен на квалитетот на пријателствата, социјалните компетенции и антисоцијалното однесување. Истражувањето опфати 150 ученици со забавен когнитивен развој; 52 од нив имаат поддршка од специјални едукатори и рехабилитатори во редовното образование, додека 98 ученици немаат таква поддршка. Квалитетот на пријателствата беше проценет со прашалник за квалитетот на пријателствата. За проценка на социјалните компетенции и антисоцијалното однесување, беше употребена Скалата за социјално однесување во училиште. Разликите во групата беа испитани со t-тестот од софтверскиот пакет на Windows SPSS 14. Резултатите покажаа дека учениците со задоцнет когнитивен развој коишто имаат поддршка од специјални едукатори и рехабилитатори го проценуваат нивното другарување како поквалитетно. Учениците со задоцнет когнитивен развој коишто посетуваат училишта во коишто нема специјални едукатори и рехабилитатори постигнуваат демонстративно подобро ниво на социјална компетенција. The purpose of the research was to see whether work of special educators and rehabilitators in the regular school has a positive influence on peer relationship among students with delayed cognitive development. The accent was on friendship quality, social competence and antisocial behavior. The research comprised 150 students with slow cognitive development, 52 of who have support of special educators and rehabilitators in regular education, while the remaining 98 students are without support. Friendship quality was evaluated applying Friendship Quality Questionnaire. School Social Behavior Scale was used in order to evaluate social competence and antisocial behavior. Differences among the groups were examined by t-test from SPSS 14 Windows software package. The results have shown that students with slow cognitive development having support from special educators and rehabilitators evaluate their friendship more qualitative. Students with delayed cognitive development attending schools without special educators and rehabilitators engaged demonstrate better level of the social competence.

Inclusion of children with special needs, including children with delayed cognitive development, in regular elementary schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina is regulated by the Framework law of primary and secondary education from 2003 (1).Article 19 states that "children and young people with special educational needs shall be educated in regular schools and according to programs adapted to their individual needs."The law does not oblige schools to employ special educators and rehabilitators although inclusion of children with special needs in regular schools is not conceivable without professional support.Tasks of special educators and rehabilitators in regular school are related to providing support to children with special needs, parents, teachers and peers.The world of peers is a very important social environment in which a child grows and develops.In the same age group, a child meets the need for intimacy, the forms of self-image, acquire social skills, learn to help, share and collaborate (2,3) as well as develops emotionally (4) and cognitively (5).Through interactions with peers, a child experiments various forms of social behavior (6,7).High-quality friendships in primary school age were positively associated with success and satisfaction in school (8) and negatively with loneliness and self-esteem (9,10).Most researches point out a positive impact of peer relationships on a child development, while Landsford et al (11) suggests that connections with peers can have a negative impact on the development of an individual.The same principles of development are valid Валидни се истите принципи на развој и за децата со задоцнет когнитивен развој и за нивните врсници со типичен развој, но овие деца имаат проблеми во доменот на социјалните компетенции и односот со врсниците (12)(13)(14).Heiman (15)  both for children with delayed cognitive development and for their peers with typical development, but these children have problems in the domain of social competence in peer relationships (12)(13)(14).Heiman (15) indicates that friendship bonds of children with delayed cognitive development are characterized primarily by difficulty in establishing intimate relationships, while frustration and dissatisfaction are present in existing relationships.Tur-Kaspa et al (14) showed that students with delayed cognitive development have fewer reciprocal friendships, and more reciprocal rejections compared to their peers with typical development.Vaughn et al., (16) observed that in an inclusive environment, a significant percentage of students with delayed cognitive development have at least one reciprocal friend.Vaughn et al., (17) pointed out that school age children of a typical development estimate their friendship significantly better than students with delayed cognitive development, and research of Margalit and Meira (18) showed that these children feel less affection by friends and are less able to resolve conflicts.A model of peer relationships, described by Bukowski and Hoza (2), is based on two main dimensions of peer relationships: popularity and friendship.In this study, the focus is on assessing the impact of special educators and rehabilitators on the quality of friendship and achieved levels of social competence and antisocial behavior in school environment.Dimensions of friendship have been chosen as a subject of the research because it is a variable that is, for the most part, determined by the characteristics of children with delayed cognitive development which special educators and rehabilitators can have influence on through their work.
In accordance with the subject of the research, the aim of this paper is to study the influence of the special educators and rehabilitators in regular school on peer relations among students with delayed cognitive development.
The study included students with delayed cognitive development (N = 150), aged 8-14 years, both sexes, from six primary schools in Tuzla Canton.A sample of children with delayed cognitive development is divided into two subgroups: children supported by a special educator and rehabilitator (N = 52) and children not supported by a special educators and rehabilitators (N = 98).

Резултати Results
Слика 1: Резултати од проценката на квалитетот на пријателството  Analyzing Chart 1, it can be seen that children attending schools with support of special educators and rehabilitators achieve better results on all subscales, including the "Conflict and betrayal" subscale, where higher number of points means worse results.These children have estimated that their friendship is characterized by a greater degree of intimate exchange; they talk to their best friends about their problems, things that make them sad, private matters; they confide their secrets, resolve conflicts quickly and easily, always sit in the desk with their best friend, choose him as a partner in the game, spend vacation with him, etc. ("Companionship and recreation").Best friends help them finish some tasks before, assist them with school work, lend them things, make special services ("Help and guidance"), support their ideas, tell them that they are good and smart, they care about their feelings and etc. ("Validation and caring").However, an estimate that their Results of t-test (Table 1) indicate that there are statistically significant differences among subgroups on "Validation and caring" (t=-4,34; p<0,01), "Conflict and betrayal" (t=-3,64; p<0,01), "Intimate exchange" (t=-3,30; p<0,01), and "Help and guidance" (t=-2,29; p<0,05) subscales.The obtained difference on "Validation and caring", "Help and guidance" and "Intimate exchange" subscales is in favor of children with slow cognitive development attending schools with special educators and rehabilitators.On the "Conflict and betrayal" subscale, the obtained difference is in favor of children with slow cognitive development attending schools without special educators and rehabilitators.
Слика 2: Резултати од децата на супскалата и на скалата за социјална компетенција во целост Children who attend schools with special educators and rehabilitators on all subscales of antisocial behavior and on the scale in general have slightly higher arithmetic mean of summary variables than children coming from schools that do not have special educators and rehabilitators (Chart 3

Table 2 .
Differences in achieved level of social functioning among subgroups

Стандардна девијација присуство на специјални едукатори и рехабилитатори / Standard deviation Presence of special educators and rehabilitators Супскали/ Subscales
Analyzing the obtained results, we concluded that the presence of special educators and rehabilitators in the schools included in the study did not give desired results in relation to the examined variables.Therefore, it imposes the question, what is the cause of these results?There are several possible causes for this result.First of all, it should be pointed out that there is only one therapist in each of the two schools, which have 52 children being examined, and another possible cause might be a huge number of children who special educator and rehabilitator should work with.Another cause might be educational profile of special educators and rehabilitators.One of the two schools employs a speech therapist and the other one a special teacher working in a special class within a regular school.During undergraduate studies the speech therapist is not trained to work with this population.On the other hand, a special teacher, although trained to work with this population, considering that work in a special class, does not have enough time to devote to the needs of children integrated into regular classes.Legislation in Bosnia and Herzegovina disables special educators and rehabilitators to perform their roles in regular schools, which could also be one of the causes for these results.Given these facts, we can conclude that they are also the limiting factors of this study.Another limiting factor of this study is the fact that in the area of Tuzla Canton only two of 80 schools have Тузланскиот кантон само две од 80 училишта имаат вработено специјални едукатори и рехабилитатори, а во истражувањето нема вклучено поголем број училишта.Поради овие ограничувања, истражувањето треба да се повтори кога ќе се исполнат објективните услови.specialeducators and rehabilitators employed, and the research could not have involved a larger number of schools.Because of these limitations, the research should be repeated when necessary objective conditions are met.The results indicate the need of establishing the Framework program for special educator and rehabilitator in the regular school and setting of minimum standards of education for pupils with special educational needs in regular schools.Also, it is necessary to regulate obligatory employment of special educators and rehabilitators into regular schools and use the current legislative option of engagement of special educators and rehabilitators employed in special schools.