Abstract
Based on interviews and fieldwork in Norwegian day-care institutions, I examine day-care staffs’ descriptions of children suspected of, but not (yet) diagnosed as, having impairments. The main research question is: how do children become constructed as possibly impaired and positioned outside the realm of a perceived normality in Norwegian day-care centres? Understanding impairment as discursively constructed, I explore how day-care staffs’ portrayals of three young boys construct them as deviant and possibly impaired by drawing on cultural values and ideas about children and childhood. I use a continuum concept (Davis 1995) to visualize and conceptualise the fluid and blurry areas between the binaries, disabled/non-disabled and normal/abnormal, and explore how day-care staffs’ statements deconstruct or cut-off the continuum, thus, (re)produce categories and position some children as deviating from what is perceived and accepted as normal.
Highlights
Norwegian day-care institutions are considered central arenas for inclusion processes, and should offer all children, no matter their individual ability or background, good developmental and learning opportunities
Day-care institutions are perceived as key arenas for the discovery of children with special needs and impairments
One could say that these types of inclusion measures rely on the logic: ‘Changing what is wrong with society, [...] implies finding out what is “wrong” with the people in it’ (Grue 2010, 169)
Summary
Norwegian day-care institutions are considered central arenas for inclusion processes, and should offer all children, no matter their individual ability or background, good developmental and learning opportunities Day-care institutions are perceived as key arenas for the discovery of children with special needs and impairments In order for day-care institutions to take appropriate measures and become inclusive, staff members are expected to discover and report to external authorities their concerns about a child that may have special needs. Day-care children’s potential impairments or special needs are not considered to be discovered, but rather constructed. My overarching research question is: How do children become constructed as possibly impaired and positioned outside the realm of a perceived normality in Norwegian day-care centres?
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