障害児の幼稚園教育に関する調査研究

It is the main theme in this study how school hours relate to early education for handicapped children. A questionaire was designed for this particular purpose. It was conducted on all the kindergarten teachers in Matsue city, Shimane prefecture. The most interesting result is that all of them accept the present school hours which are provided by Ministry of Education, on the ground that it is reasonable for developmental states of their children. But it is impossible to find out logical consistency in their other replies. For example, mentally retarded children are treated in the same way as normal children are. It is questionable furthermore that they emphasize kindergarten education of excellent quality. The school hours with programs in kindergartens are almost as long as in nursery schools in the same city. As a matter of fact, the cardinal task of kindergartens is fundamentally to lead the art of living. Therefore, it is quite within the bounds of possibility that kindergartens accept more mentally retarded children. It also requires further examination whether children had better spend more time in a kindergarten or not, correlating with conditions of their home, commuinty and so on.