Abstract:

The main purpose of this research is to examine the problems children with special needs encounter during their adaptation to school from the perspectives of teachers. For this purpose, the views of teachers who teach children with mild mental retardation were examined with a focus on the children's adaptation process to school. The sample of the research was determined by the purposive sampling method and consists of 10 special education classroom teachers working in Aksaray. In order to determine the opinions of teachers about the school adjustment problems of children with special needs, phenomenological design was used as a qualitative research method, and a semi-structured interview form was applied for data collection. In the analysis of the data obtained in the research, content analysis method was used, a method used in qualitative research. According to the analysis of the data, during the school adaptation process, children with special needs often exhibit behaviors such as introversion, reluctance to enter the classroom, crying, unwillingness to communicate and participate in activities, aggression and disruption of the lesson. The teachers stated that the reasons for these problems experienced in the school adjustment process are children's poor social and communicative skills, as well as family attitudes and peer acceptance. In addition, the teachers stated that they used practices and activities such as organizing interesting activities, reinforcement, unconditional acceptance, empathy, and ensuring participation in social lessons so that children with school adjustment problems can get through the adaptation process in a healthy way. Since the psychological preparation of children for school by the families before the start of the education period will facilitate the adaptation process, it is recommended that teachers organize educational seminars for families in this regard.

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