In the kindergartens

More special needs even for the youngest children

888 children in the last kindergarten year in Upper Austria had special educational needs in the previous year.(Bild: candy1812 - stock.adobe.com)

In Upper Austrian kindergartens, the number of children with special needs is increasing. According to the SPÖ, this is particularly problematic in the last year of kindergarten - because the elementary school are not prepared enough for the children concerned and have to start "from scratch" with them.  

More and more children in Upper Austria need special support before they start school. Since 2020, the number of children with disabilities and those with increased support needs - such as speech therapy or motor skills - in nurseries and kindergartens has risen steadily. This is the result of a response to an SPÖ inquiry by the responsible deputy governor Christine Haberlander (ÖVP).

No district figures
The SPÖ focuses on the children affected in the last - i.e. compulsory - year of kindergarten. Last year, 888 children fell into the two categories mentioned above. A year earlier, there were 54 fewer, and in 2020 there were 736 children. The main problem with this development is that Haberlander is unable to provide any information on the total number of children affected per district, says SPÖ education spokesperson Doris Margreiter. 

No time should be lost at this early stage of education in particular, and forward planning is needed to ensure this.

Doris Margreiter, SPÖ-Bildungssprecherin

Too little information for elementary school
This information would be so important "because there are currently problems with the transfer of information when transferring from kindergarten to elementary school", argues the SPÖ politician. This means that elementary school do not know enough about children who come to them with special educational needs. They have to start "de facto from scratch" and it takes "a semester to find out what a child needs". An unacceptable situation, says Margreiter: "Especially at this early stage of education, no time should be lost, and to ensure this, forward-looking planning is needed."

This also includes knowing how many children with special educational needs are on a waiting list for a kindergarten place - but according to the response to the inquiry, there is no information on this.