Abstracts - Earli

programme offered by Örebro University and reflections of the teacher-educators involved in theproject from the university. The paper presents preliminary analysis of the range of meanings thatare subscribed to "diversity" by national agencies, schools, teachers and teacher-educators inSweden in the new millennium. Issues regarding how categories are handled and accounted forhighlight shifts and important ways in how identity issues get framed in terms of learning andcommunication by these actors.Who is in need of special support? Negotiating and categorising pupils identities in the SwedishschoolLisa Asp-Onsjo, Department of Education, Göteborg University, SwedenEva Hjörne, Department of Education, SwedenThis presentation reports an analysis of how diversity is understood, defined and remediated in theSwedish school. More specifically we are analysing talk about pupils who are considered to ‘be inneed of special support’. Different categories and diagnoses, as for example ADHD, Aspergerssyndrome or mental retardation, have come to play an important role when handling dilemmasencountered in the context of children who experience difficulties. The general interest of the workreported here is the issue of how such diagnoses (notably ADHD and retardation) are assigned tochildren. The analysis is based on recorded meetings from conferences in school whereinstitutional representatives, for example, pedagogical and psychological experts, and parentsmeet. The task at hand is to talk about pupils alleged learning difficulties in school and how toattend to these. The findings show how the identity of the child is negotiated between parents (whoare reluctant to consent to testing) and the school representatives. The latter, for example, have topersuade the parents that a certain category would be beneficial for everyone and include sucharguments as that it would make it easier for the school to help the pupil. The results also showthat the descriptions frequently used are vague and negative and refer to children’s behaviours orinner characteristics. There is very little evidence of attempting to understand the child’s problemsas grounded in contextual factors and/or as having to do with the challenges facing the child in theclassroom. At present, this results in an increased use of classifications referring to intellectualcapacity or grounded in biomedical traditions (ADHD etc.) when categorising pupils in need ofspecial support. This process has considerable consequences for the educational careers of pupils.The arguments from parents or pupils are mostly not taken into account in this process.Understanding of numerical equivalence in preschool children with autism, developmental delays,and motor difficultiesHeloiza Barbosa, Federal University of Santa Catarina, BrazilCardinal equivalence is the ability to understand that three apples and three oranges are equivalentnumerically. Studies’ results demonstrated that typically developing children gradually developthe ability to judge equivalence. Initially, children focus on perceptually similar features in the setsto judge equivalence. But, by 4-years of age, children are able to focus on the numerical relationswhen judging equivalence between sets made up of both homogeneous and heterogeneous items.The aim of this study was to investigate whether young children with disabilities would have theability to judge equivalence in homogeneous and heterogeneous sets, and whether trainingfocusing on perceptual or relational similarities would influence performance on test of judgmentof equivalence in this population. The study also investigated the correlation between counting andcardinality skills with equivalence understanding. Eleven children participated in this study, fourchildren with autism, five children with developmental delays, and two children with motordisabilities. The experimenter presented each child with a target card and a choice card in a trial.– 668 –