Grzymała-Moszczyńska, H., Barzykowski, K., Dzida, D., Grzymała-Moszczyńska, J. i Kosno, M. (2011). Raport końcowy z projektu badawczego. [The final report of the research project: Cognitive and linguistic functioning of Roma children attending Polish public and special schools – social contexts]. In: J. Talewicz-Kwiatkowska, & M. Kołaczek (red.), Funkcjonowanie poznawcze i językowe dzieci romskich uczęszczających do szkół podstawowych specjalnych i masowych – konteksty społeczne (s. 51-84). Oświęcim: Stowarzyszenie Romów w Polsce.

Final research report “Cognitive and linguistic functioning of Roma children attending Polish public and special schools – social contexts”

According to the 'Information for students of Roma origin directed to special education' listed in the Ministry of Interior and Administration website, a compulsory education obligation in 2010 was executed by 2829 Roma children.

Most of the Roma children attending schools live in Dolnośląskie, Małopolskie, Śląskie and Opolskie Voivodship. A great majority of Roma pupils attend public schools. They are subjected to the same program requirements as Polish pupils. Due to the lack of special programs for Roma children, they are forced to measure up to the requirements for Polish pupils which often causes serious difficulties (Kwadrans, 2007).

It is important to mention that the Ministress of National Education Katarzyna Hall, in a response to the press coverage indicating a specific situation of Roma children in Polish educational system, stated: […] Roma children should get help in learning Polish language in the fist place, as it is a main obstacle identified in school. The school's support should lie in equalizing their level of knowledge in order to make it possible for them to attend classes with a normal program (PAP, 2008). This statement seems to reflect a very simplistic way of perceiving Roma students' situation, together with the lack of sensitivity for bilingualism and biculturalism from the civil servants working on the central public administration's level. There is no understanding of the specific character of working with children of other culture who have a right to retain their own cultural heritage. But what one can sense in this statement is the implicit opinion that school should play the role of the factor of assimilation with the majority culture.

The aim of this report is to emphasize the multi-aspectual nature of Roma pupils' situation (pupils attending both public and special schools). The perspective of many participants of the education process – including Roma students and their parents as well as pedagogical staff from their schools – has been taken into account during the following analysis.

The aim of the research was to answer four kinds of questions: •What is the current situation of Roma children in public and special schools in Poland? •What factors influence the current situation? •What actions are to be taken in order to change/remove the unfavorable factors? •What actions are to be taken in order to modify the current situation in the direction of

preferable changes? In order to answer the questions above, the research included six groups of people participating in the process of shaping the situation of Roma children in Polish schools. The multiplicity of perspectives in articulating the answers, was thereby accepted. And for that reason the research has been both qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (psychological tests). Three detailed hypothesis have been verified: •Hypothesis 1: The IQ of Roma children in Polish special schools measured with Raven's Progressive Matrices remains within the range of results indicating intellectual disability

(below 5th

percentile). •Hypothesis 2: The IQ of Roma children in Polish special schools measured with Raven's Progressive Matrices differs significantly from the IQ of Roma children in Polish public schools. •Hypothesis 3: The level of knowledge of Polish language among Roma children in special schools is significantly lower than the level of knowledge of Polish language among Roma children in public schools. Methodology Participants The following groups of people engaged in the process of Roma pupils' education in various ways were included in the research: •Roma children attending special schools, •Roma children attending public schools, •parents of Roma children attending both kinds of schools, •Roma assistants, •headteachers of schools where Roma children attend, •teachers from schools where Roma children attend, •psychologists and pedagogues from schools where Roma children attend. The biggest subgroup from those examined is a group of children of Roma origin attending both kinds of schools. In general, 77 children aged 6-16 years old (the average of age =10,25, SD =2,25). The group of participants was gender-balanced and consisted of: •Gender: 34 (44%) girls and 43 (56%) boys. •Type of school: 20 (26%) participants from special schools; 57 (74%) from public schools of whom 11 children had previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability. Schools taking part in the research were randomly chosen out of these with large number of Roma pupils (>10) and those with smaller number of Roma pupils (<10). •Small schools: did not take part in the research because of the school's or parental refusal. •Large schools (over 10 pupils): 66 (86%). •Medium schools (between 5 and 10 pupils): 11 (14%). The following changes occurred in the number of children planned in the research project: firstly it was planned to examine at least 60 children – 30 from each type of school (public and special school) in three voivodships. But during the research it turned out it was possible to do it in the case of only 20 children from special schools and 57 from

public schools. Therefore, in general, we examined 17 children more than it had been planned but in the case of special schools there were 10 children less. Regardless the additional list of Roma children provided in the project, we did not succeed in examining larger number of pupils from special schools. All of this because of the fact that in several cases schools or parents refused to have their children tested. Moreover, some of the children with the previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability attended public schools. In the end, we examined 31 children with the previous diagnosis. The category of intellectual functioning based on the previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability In relation to the Protection of Personal Data Act, the test performing researchers could not freely access the content of all the psychological diagnosis of 'mental retardation'. In the case of limited access to these documents caused by parental refusal or lack of the statement's copy, assigning the category of disability was based on: special school attendance (the formal condition of being accepted to special school is to have such document) or school's staff declaration (class-masters, psychologists or pedagogues who have a full insight in every child's documentation). The researchers' insight in the documentation was not absolutely necessary, since the detailed analysis of it was not an issue in this research. And this is how the participants' group looks like in terms of intellectual disability: •46 (60%) children with no learning disabilities and 31 (40%) children who are intellectually disabled (to whom mild intellectual disability had been diagnosed). The gender proportions were as follows: •The subgroup of children with no learning disabilities: 21 girls (46%) and 25 (54%) boys aged 5-13 (average age =9,59, SD =2,06). •The subgroup of intellectually disabled children: 13 (42%) girls i 18 (58%) boys aged 7 -16 ( average age =11,22, SD =2,21). The examined children attended schools in the following voivodships: •Małopolskie Voivodship: 22 (29%) children including Kraków: 6; Nowy Targ: 6; Maruszyna Dolna: 10. Total: 15 (68%) children with no learning disabilities and 7 (32%) intellectually disabled children. •Opolskie Voivodship: 27 (35%) children including Głubczyce: 18; Kędzierzyn-Koźle: 9. Total: 6 (22%) children with no learning disabilities and 21 (78%) intellectually disabled children. •Śląskie Voivodship: 28 (36%) children including Zabrze: 25; Żywiec: 2; Chorzów: 1. Total: 25 (89%) children with no learning disabilities and 3 (11%) intellectually disabled children. The next group consisted of Roma pupils' parents of whom 25 were interviewed. Researchers were trying to reach every parent but it was not always possible. A smaller number of parents in comparison to a number of children is partially caused by the fact that most of the pupils come from multiple children families (in such case more than one child has been examined). In other cases there was no possibility of getting in touch with parents (invalid telephone numbers), sometimes the families were in conflict. Finally, the last group (54 participants) was formed of pedagogical staff from schools with Roma children. They were Roma assistants (6 people), headteachers (9 people), teachers (31 people), psychologists and pedagogues (8 people). Materials The following research tools were used:

The cognitive functioning measurement: Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (Jaworowska and Szustrowa, 2007) and Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices (Jaworowska i Szustrowa, 2003). It is a nonverbal test typically used in intelligence testing of children and youth. This format is designed to measure components of general intelligence, in particular processes taking part in the creation of concepts (comparison, abstraction, deduction, generalization). This test requires abilities in detecting relations between abstract elements (relation education). The performance in this test does not depend on the linguistic skills, on condition that a child understands the instruction.

Regardless of the cognitive functioning measurement not connected to the use of language, other research tools were used – the tools that measure linguistic competence of Roma children. The aim was to asses the knowledge of Polish language but not in a way to interfere with the IQ test results.

Examining the vocabulary, the two independent tools were used. To measure the ability of understanding of speech (receptive vocabulary) we used The Picture Vocabulary Test – Reception by E. Haman and K. Fronczyk (experimental version). In each of the two versions (A and B) of the test there are 88 cards. Each test card (A4, horizontal) contains 4 pictures (one referring to the key word, three of them to distractions), size 10 x 10 cm distributed evenly every 1 cm. Each picture has a black frame to distinguish it easily from another. Pictures on the card are numbered from left to right, each card has its own number in the bottom right corner. The examiner presents each card with four pictures to a child asking about the key word. A child's task is to point at the picture that represents the key word. The form of questions asked depends on the grammatical category of the key word. If it is a noun, examiner asks: 'Where is... (e.g. the cat)?”. About the adjectives examiner asks “Which is... (e.g. rich)?” or “What is... (e.g. mining)?” All the questions in the exact wording are printed on the answer sheet. A child's answers (the number of the picture pointed in the card) are written down by the examiner on the same sheet. There are 51 nouns, 25 verbs and 12 adjectives in the test. To each key word three distractions are assigned: phonetic, semantic and thematic (Haman, Fronczyk and Miękisz, 2010). Distractions are the three other pictures in the same card and if the child points at it, the answer is wrong. For example, if the key word is 'loaf', the phonetic distraction is 'drum' [in Polish they sound similar: 'bochenek-bębenek' – transl. note], semantic distraction is 'slice', thematic distraction is 'knife' (Haman, Fronczyk and Miękisz, 2010).

To measure the ability of an active use of Polish language (expressive vocabulary) we used Vocabulary Test by E. Haman (abridged, experimental version) that consists of 50 pictures. During exposition of each picture a child is asked: in the case of nouns “What is it?” or “Who is it?”, and in the case of verbs “What is he or she doing?”. The answers are noted down in the answer sheet. Another research method was a structured interview with the pedagogical staff and Roma pupils' parents. •Interviews with pedagogical staff concerned the following issues: −A child's general, intellectual and social functioning assessment. −The assessment of parental engagement in child's education and school life (attending parent-teacher meetings, helping a child with school issues etc.). •Interviews with parents concerned the following issues: −A child's general, intellectual and social functioning assessment.

−A child's functioning assessment after joining special school. −The Polish school's functioning assessment from the ethnic minority point of view – suggesting the potential changes. −In the case of parents of children attending special schools we also asked about the way a child was placed in it. The procedure The Association of Roma in Poland gave the research team a list of schools where Roma children attended in Śląskie, Małopolskie and Opolskie Voivodships. They were both special and public types of schools. Six schools (three special schools and three public schools) were randomly chosen from each voivodship. The research got started with a telephone contact with headteachers, presenting a general picture of the research. After gaining acceptance, the letters with detailed information on the theme of the research, methods and research team were sent. In most of cases headmasters used to agree on the study, sometimes even used to help with obtaining written agreements from parents. Only two schools refused to cooperate. Their headteachers referred to The Protection of Personal Data Act and to the concern for possible conflicts with Roma parents who – according to the headteachers – 'always start fights and it's better not to have anything to do with them'. In other two cases the research could not be performed due to the absence of children of Roma origin. The absence was caused either by child's migration or by the official status of the child whose parents had not declared his or her Roma ethnic minority status. The parents informed about the procedure and the aim of the research were signing their agreements for their children to be part of the project (sample: Attachment no. 1). In each case also a child had to agree to take part in the research. The research took place from January till March 2011 and was conducted by the team of four scholars trained and prepared for using the research tools. All the researchers had been trained in using and interpreting the Raven's Progressive Matrices results. The individual examination of children in special and public schools took place in the separate rooms (psychologist's and pedagogue's offices or empty classrooms). The conditions were good, silence and lack of distractions made it possible to concentrate on the tasks. The examination with Raven's Progressive Matrices was conducted after agreeing on the contract between the examiner and a child. Choosing the proper version of the Raven's Progressive Matrices in the case of children with no learning disabilities depended on a child's age. Younger children (age under 9 years and 11 months) filled Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices (RCPM), while the older ones filled Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM). In the case of children directed to special education due to an intellectual disability filled the RCPM version regardless of their age. Each time the instructions were given in Polish and in a child's native tongue when necessary. In order to make sure that children understand the instructions, Roma assistants speaking fluent Romani language were present in this part of the examination. If it was necessary, the assistant present in the room could translate the instruction. The assistant was no longer present in the further parts of examination. Usually, after the examination the structured interviews with children's parents, teachers and other figures from school's environment (psychologists, pedagogues, Roma assistants) took place. It is worth here to emphasize a great benevolence of the pedagogical staff towards the research team and their willingness to share their experience in working with Roma pupils. The results

The quantitative part In this part we present children's results in all types of tests: The Raven's Progressive Matrices, The Picture Vocabulary Test – Reception by E. Haman and K. Fronczyk (experimental version) and in the Vocabulary Test by E. Haman (abridged, experimental version). Before we get to the detailed presentation of the results we want to acknowledge that The World Health Organization accepted (after a series of modifications) in 1992 the four-stage classification of mental disability (retardation) (Svarcova, 2003; in: Kowalik, 2008): 1.mild mental retardation – an IQ score of 50-69, 2.moderate mental retardation – an IQ score of 35-49, 3.severe mental retardation – an IQ score of 20-34, 4.profound mental retardation – an IQ lower than 20. In the following report we are using the term mental or intellectual disability instead of 'mental retardation' which, unfortunately, still exists in all kinds of medical and psychological classifications and is of a pejorative connotation. Acknowledging the retardation as a disability can contribute to the easier and faster rehabilitation (Kowalik, 2008). Although in the professional literature a term 'mental retardation' is the most common, 'mental disability' is already acknowledged as correct only in some of the latest publications. The raw data gained within the research has been statistically analyzed and processed by programs: Statistica 9.0 and PASW Statistics 17.0. 1. The intellectual functioning Table 1 and Chart 1 present the list of intellectual ability and disability categories depending on the criteria of: previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability vs results in The Raven's Progressive Matrices in both Standard and Colored version. Table 1. Mental functioning categories based on the previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability and on Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM) results

Chart 1. Mental functioning categories based on the previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability and on Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM) results Basing on the previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability we distinguished 46 children with no learning disabilities and 31 with at least mild mental disability. The Raven's Progressive Matrices scores were used to distinct the disability groups. According to the classification presented in the manual (Jaworowska and Szustrowa, 2003, 2007) a score below the 5. percentile indicates 'mental retardation'1. In the analysis of the results' category lower than average, the 85-percent confidence interval was applied2. 1 In the further part of this chapter the term 'retardation' refers directly to the V category of the results' 2 It is important to note that according to the classical tests' theory (see: Brzeziński, 2003; Hornowska, 2010, Anastasi

and Urbina, 1999) the final test score consists of the genuine score and the measurement error. For this reason the score obtained cannot be treated as a final numeric result. To achieve this one builds the so called confidence intervals for the score obtained in order to conclude the genuine score. The confidence intervals enable, on a certain level of probability, to indicate the range for a genuine score. Hornowska (2010) recommends to treat a tested person results' presentation in a form of a results' band as an imperative. In the following research we assumed that the scores below the 5. percentile indicate the 'intellectual retardation' (Jaworowska and Szustrowa, 2003, 2007). Considering the aim of the examination (the distinction of children with intellectual disability), the interval estimation of the genuine score is therefore highly significant in reference to the scores being on the edge of the scores indicating disability (ie. the scores significantly below the average and very low scores which indicate 'retardation'). Moreover, while ignoring the confidence intervals it is hard to agree that a child with a very low score is in fact intellectually disabled. The 85-percent confidence interval was applied. In comparison to a 95-percent confidence interval it

In six cases an arbitrary decision was made to qualify the score as 'mental retardation' category. They were the cases of children under the age of 10 whose results could not have been applied to Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices' norms and whose raw score remained below 12. percentile in the oldest normalization age group. While making such decisions the average scores analysis, in the other age groups, were considered (Jaworowska and Szustrowa, 2003). The analysis suggests that the scores rise in the second half of 10 years of age. And for that reason a cautious assumption about the rising of the scores in later life has been made. The criteria of disability was set at the developmental delay of at least 3 years (Spionek, 1975). In other words, a child's raw score was compared with the average scores' table on the subsequent levels of age (Table 3; see: Jaworowska and Szustrowa, 2003, p. 19). Thanks to it, we were able to answer the question: to which age's average does the child's raw score refer? For example: the result of 17 points, scored by a 16 year old child, is in the lower range of the average results (M = 23,1; SD = 7,2) scored by children aged 9,05 (16) – 9,11 (15). The result matches the average scores of 9 year old children. Therefore it can be cautiously assumed that the developmental delay in such case equals 3 years. Such cases are described below in details: •The raw score of children aged: 11,083 (two persons), 13,04 and 14,09 was equals 15,00. This refers to the lower limit of the average scores (M = 20,03; SD = 5,04) on the level of 7,05-7,11 years of age. •The raw score of: one child age 13,01 and one child age 16,00 equals respectively: 16 and 17. They refer to the lower limit of the average scores (M = 23,1; SD = 7,2) on the level of 8,11-9,05 years of age. From 46 children with no learning disabilities (attending public schools) two of them (4,3% of this subgroup) achieved results suggesting an intellectual disability. 32 children (ca. 70%) scored at the level of an intellectual norm (the score over 5. percentile), 12 children (ca. 26%) scored from the very low score's range (intellectual disability) to the scores significantly below the average. Among 31 children previously diagnosed as intellectually disabled: 16 children (ca. 52% of this subgroup) scored in the range of intellectual norm, 6 children (ca. 19%) scored below the intellectual norm limit, the results of 9 children (ca. 29%) were from the very low score's range (intellectual disability) to the scores significantly below the average. The detailed distribution of various categories of interpretation of the results obtained (therefore not including 85% confidence interval!) in the Raven's Progressive Matrices, in the groups distinguished on the basis of the previous psychological diagnosis, is as following: Children with no learning disabilities: •Children significantly above the average: 4 (ca. 9% of the group). •Children on the intellectual average level: 16 (ca. 35% of the group). •Children on the significantly lower than average level: 24 (ca. 52% of the group), where 12 children (26%) are at the edge of 'retardation'. •Children 'mentally retarded': 2 (ca. 4%).

characterizes with a satisfactory precision (a satisfactory trust level to the obtained score) and with a range that does not imply any difficulties with interpretation (whilst the 95-percent interval seems to be too broad). In this context, the results suggesting 'retardation', together with its whole confidence interval, remain within a range of the very low scores. The choice of the 85-percent confidence interval was therefore caused by a necessity of acknowledging the results obtained in the analysis of the tool used for the research. But it was also caused by the aspirations for objectivity. The wider confidence interval (95%) appeared too liberal, what could have been perceived as an intentional attempt to make low scores higher.

3 The age includes: number of years, number of months (e.g. 16,01 means 16 years and 1 month).

Children with intellectual disability: •Children on the average intellectual level: 6 (ca. 19% of the group). •Children on the significantly lower than average level: 16 (ca.52% of the group), where 6 children (ca. 19%) are at the edge of 'retardation'. •Children with intellectual disability: 9 (ca. 29%) of which 3 persons (ca. 10%) are at the edge of the significantly below average scores. The score of 6 children (ca. 19%) suggest mental 'retardation'. The Phi-Yull contingency (correlation) coefficient of the intellectual functioning based on the previous psychological diagnosis and the results obtained in the Raven's Progressive Matrices equals φ = 0,30; p<0,008. The coefficient determines the correlation (relationship) between two variables expressed on the nominal scales (lack of disabilities vs disability). Table 2 illustrates the means and standard deviations for the standard ten scale results in the two groups: lack of disabilities and intellectual disability. The unilateral independent sample T-test showed that the groups differed significantly in terms of Raven's Progressive Matrices results. Children from a group with no learning disabilities achieved better scores comparing to children with disabilities (t[75] = 2,83; p<0,006).

Categories of intellectual functioning

No disability Disability M 4,09 3,06 SD 1,71 1,29

Table 2. Means and standard deviations for the standard ten scale in two groups: lack of disabilities and intellectual disability Table 3 illustrates the means and standard deviations for the standard ten scale results in two groups of schools: public (children without previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability) and special schools. The unilateral independent sample test revealed statistically significant differences within the Raven's Progressive Matrices results. The results of children with no learning disabilities were higher that those of the disabled children (in special schools), t[64] = 1,98; p<0,05). The results of children in public and special schools (regardless of their intellectual functioning category, compare with Table 4) were not significantly different (t[75] = 1,37; p>0,05).

Categories of intellectual functioning: public and special schools

No disability: public schools

Disability: special schools

M 4,09 3,25 SD 1,71 1,21

Table 3. Means and standard deviations for the standard ten scale results in a group of children with no learning disabilities (public schools) and with disabilities (special schools)

Category of school Public schools Special schools

M 3,82 3,25 SD 1,73 1,21

Table 4. Means and standard deviations for the standard ten scale results in a group of public schools' and special school's pupils. 2. The linguistic functioning In the second part of the individual examination we tested children's language skills in Polish using the Vocabulary Test by E. Haman and The Picture Vocabulary Test – Reception by E. Haman and K. Fronczyk (experimental version). The advantages of these tests are their form (pictures) and possibility to test both expressive and receptive vocabulary. In the Verbal Scale of Wechsler's Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R) all the sub-tests are provided verbally and/or read by a psychologist (basing on verbal communication). In the Vocabulary (one of the sub-tests of the Verbal Scale) a child has to give an accurate definition of a word given by a psychologist without any support of the pictorial material. E. Haman's Test, by enabling the testing of an expressive and receptive vocabulary, gives a possibility to get broader picture of the Roma children's linguistic level. In contrast to the tasks from the Verbal Scale children can demonstrate their receptive language skills by pointing at the pictures in reaction to the examiner's question. Three children's results have been excluded from the analysis. Two of them presented an extremely high and extremely low results and the third person had a post-traumatic brain injury. The quantitative analysis There were no significant statistical differences in the statistical analysis within the level of understanding and creation of speech by the primary school children from public and special schools. The average results in both tests exceed the half of the correct answers. In the case of the receptive vocabulary, the mean is high (the maximum possible score is 88). It is important to stress that the both research tools are intended for preschool children and not all of the Roma children did good with it, what is visible in the high level of diversification of the results in both tasks (expressive and receptive vocabulary). Table 5. Means and standard deviations of vocabulary tests results in groups of children from public and special schools There have been also observed some differences between the vocabulary tasks results depending on the children's gender. Boys scored higher than girls in the task measuring both the expressive and receptive vocabulary. There were no age differences observed between a group of boys and a group of girls (regardless of their intellectual functioning). Yet some significant age differences occurred in the case of the disabled group and the group of children with no learning disabilities. There were also differences between these two groups in terms of the expressive and receptive vocabulary. Table 6. Differences of the average results in expressive and receptive vocabulary of boys and girls The level of performance in the tasks measuring the expressive and receptive vocabulary strongly positively correlated with children's results in Raven's Progressive Matrices. The higher the IQ measured with this test, the better results in the linguistic tasks. The level of creation and understanding of Polish language also correlated with the children's age.

Table 7. Correlation of the level of expressive and receptive vocabulary with the result in Raven's Progressive Matrices and with the children's age To summarize, there were no differences observed between the levels of performance of children with and without disabilities. Lack of the differences can be caused by a varied level of intellectual functioning and by a huge diversity of children's age. Children with intellectual disability are much older than those with no learning disabilities – they are more socially and educationally experienced which affects the expressive and receptive vocabulary. Children with no learning difficulties are younger but their intellectual functioning level positively correlates with the vocabulary resources. The qualitative analysis of the vocabulary tasks In order to picture the level of understanding and creation of speech, also the mistakes made by Roma children in different tasks were analyzed. •Expressive vocabulary (creation of speech) Table 8 shows these elements of the test that appeared to be difficult and the least known while naming the pictures (over 50% of children responded incorrectly). Table 8. The level of difficulty in particular elements of the test measuring expressive vocabulary •Receptive vocabulary (reception of speech) Table 9 shows these elements of the test that appeared to be difficult and the least known while recognizing the pictures (over 50% of children responded incorrectly). Table 9. The level of difficulty in particular elements of the test measuring receptive vocabulary Mistakes in the tasks based on naming The mistakes made by children in the task measuring expressive vocabulary were also analyzed, table 10 shows it in details. Table 10. Types of mistakes in a creation of speech in Roma children Analyzing mistakes of children with and without intellectual disability, a varied percentage distribution of mistakes in the creation of speech was observed. •Children with intellectual disability. Chart 2. Percentage distribution of mistakes in creation of speech made by children with intellectual disability Looking closely at the nature of mistakes made by children with intellectual disability, one may notice that lexical mistakes and the 'no answer' category are the most common. The Roma children, when they did not know the answer for questions 'What is it?/Who is it?/What is he or she doing?' most often adopted one of the two strategies: •telling words that are thematically close to the word they did not know or remember. Children often tended to tell words associated with an object, a person or an act from the picture, e.g. 'waterfall' – 'sea', 'river'. •giving an answer 'I don't know', 'I can't remember'.

Another common mistake was to replace a certain word with its description or to describe its function. The formative or grammatical mistakes rarely occurred. If children knew a proper name they usually presented it in the correct form. In the case of intellectually disabled children diminutives often occurred. Although it was not treated as a mistake, it is worth recognizing due to the fact of a large number of such utterances in disabled children in comparison to children with no previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability. •Children with no previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability. Chart 3. Percentage distribution of mistakes in creation of speech made by children with no intellectual disability Children with no previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability tended to make mostly lexical mistakes (64% of all mistakes) which means they were telling the words different to those they were asked about, giving usually associations (e.g. 'cemetery' – 'funeral', 'conductor' – 'singer') or the words belonging to the same group (e.g. 'duck' – giving a name of another bird – 'goose'). Another group of common mistakes (24%) were mistakes of giving a definition or a description of a word in the picture (e.g. 'swimmer' – 'man that swims', 'hen house' – 'house for hens'). Neologisms were rare (formative mistakes, 5%), grammatical mistakes or diminutives (only one of each) hardly ever occurred as well as answers 'I don't know' and 'I can't remember' (7%) - children tended to give clear right or wrong answers. Communication competence of Roma children – characteristics The Roma children characterized with a good level of communication competence. They were eager to initiate an interaction during the examination – they asked 'What are we going to do?', they were curious of the research aims and where did the examiners come from. During the tasks measuring the expressive vocabulary they often confused the meanings but usually used to give words thematically or semantically similar to a stimulus-word. The other strategies indicating good communication competence of Roma children were to name a function of an item, or to describe an item or a person. In reference to the development of defining abilities, naming the function of an item or describing it are some of the easiest ways of defining the meanings. Such strategies were less common among children with disabilities. Moreover, some problems with naming the main category were observed. In the task with a picture of cutlery most of the children could identify particular items but were not able to give a name of the whole category. Two of the children gave it a try by using the terms 'cooking utensils' and 'eating utensils'. Also in the case of an easier task – 'family' – children often named the individual persons ('mother, father, child') or described what they were doing ('hugging each other'). Discussion on the results of the quantitative part Table 1 and Chart 1 show that only 6 out of 31 intellectually disabled children, considering the 85-percent confidence interval, resulted in a score indicating an intellectual disability (in contrast to the group of children with no learning disabilities, where only 2 children resulted in such score). The other 16 intellectually disabled children scored significantly below the average. It is worth noting that 6 children (19%) got average results. There is one group that can be difficult to interpret (9 children, 29%) - their results are within a range from scores indicating a 'retardation', to scores significantly below the average. It would be a mistake to arbitrary decide on their disability, therefore they form a separate subgroup of children who are particularly endangered and who require an

intensified effort in compensating their intellectual deficits. But even if we acknowledge that children with scores at the edge of intellectual norm are in fact intellectually disabled, it does not change the fact that in the case of 16 children with previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability, Raven's Progressive Matrices' results suggest that they are not really 'handicapped'. The question arises as to whether it is justifiable to place these 16 out of 31 children in special schools? And the answer is not unambiguous. If we agree that only a child with a previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability can be placed in special school, there is no doubt that these 16 children, with scores indicating an intellectual norm, should not be in special schools. Yet it does not mean that there might had been other learning difficulties that were a reason for placement in special school. But it is hardly possible in the case of six children whose results indicate an average intellectual functioning. It cannot be explained due to the lack of access to the previous psychologists' diagnosis. 19% of children with the previous psychologists' diagnosis of disability (children from special schools) scored the average results. We may cautiously anticipate they would developmentally benefit from re-qualifying them as children with no disabilities. The results indicate a good intellectual functioning of these children and that there are no contraindications to their public schools' attendance. A group of children (68% of all the children tested) whose results indicate an intellectual functioning on a significantly lower than average level should be taken care of in order to compensate their deficits and learning difficulties. It can be cautiously stated that the environment and public schools can positively influence a child's development. The Phi-Yull coefficient constituting the covariance category of an intellectual functioning based on the previous psychologist's diagnosis and the RPM's results exceeded the level of statistical significance. In other words, we observed very little connection between the categories of intellectual functioning (disability vs. no educational disabilities) and the categories defined by the RPM's results. It was expected that there will be a small percentage of children with the previous psychologists' diagnosis and who scored the results indicating an intellectual disability. Whereas among the children from special schools were children whose intellectual functioning can be described as average (therefore, within a norm). Furthermore, these children could probably continue their education in public schools. Still, one can not in any way make conclusions about the nature of cause and effect in the case of this phenomenon. In ideal conditions one could expect the significant and at least moderate correlation between the categories of children's intellectual functioning defined by the RPM's results and the previous psychologists' diagnosis. The ideal conditions are understood as a possibility of carrying out both measurements in a small time interval. It is hard to state about changes that have occurred since the time of a previous psychological diagnosis only from this research. The authors are far from stating that there had been mistakes in a previous diagnosis. The most probable is that children's disability is not permanent but is caused by their social background, lacking of educational experience. Special and public schools, basing on the the previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability, have a legitimate possibility to individualize the education process. This can contribute to compensation of a previous cognitive functioning deficits. A discrepancy between the categories may be interpreted as a positive result of professional care realized due to recommendations from the previous psychological diagnosis which constitute a background for the legitimate decision on 'mental retardation'. Formally, the hypothesis H1 has not been confirmed: The IQ of Roma children in Polish special schools measured with Raven's Progressive Matrices remains

within the range of results indicating the intellectual disability (ie. below 5th

percentile). The results of children with no learning disabilities were significantly higher than the

results of children with the previous psychological diagnosis of intellectual disability. It is similar to when you compare children from special and public schools. The average results of children with no learning disabilities may be described as average, while the results of disabled children remain in a category of low scores. We cannot forget that while talking about means (average scores) we do not analyze any individual cases. During the individual diagnosis each result has to be analyzed separately. Moreover, the extreme results such as scores of children with severe mental 'retardation', influence the average results of a whole group. On a statistical level this data means that children diagnosed as intellectually disabled differ in fact in the ways of intellectual functioning from children with no specific learning disabilities that affect their functioning in the school environment. What is even more interesting is that children from special schools and public schools are not different from each other when it comes to their test results. In other words, in both kinds of schools children's cognitive functioning is diverse (ie. both groups are diverse, consisting of intellectually disabled children as well as those with no learning disabilities). And it should be expected that the two groups would be less internally diverse, but rather more different from each other. Taking this into account, the hypothesis H2 has not been confirmed: The IQ of Roma children in Polish special schools measured with Raven's Progressive Matrices differs significantly from the IQ of Roma children in Polish public schools. Borkowska and Domańska (2006) pay attention to the multi-aspectual nature of the diagnosis. They recommend to analyze the medical, psychological, social and ducational criteria while diagnosing. The most important solution of treating the intellectual disability seems to be to refrain from any classification of mentally disabled people according to their IQ level. Such solution was partially implemented in some countries, eg. USA, where several functional limitations were identified within the aspects of: communication, self-maintenance ability, social abilities, the level of family functioning, social usefulness, self-determination of one's own fate, caring for one's own health and safety, free time organization, ability to work and learn. If any shortcomings in the above competences are discovered (in at least 3 competences) before the age of 18, and also the IQ level is lower than 70-75, mental disability is therefore diagnosed (Mental Retardation. Definition, Classification and System of Supports, 1992; in: Kowalik, 2008). The linguistic functioning Hypothesis H3: The level of knowledge of Polish language among Roma children in special schools is significantly lower than the level of knowledge of Polish language among Roma children in public schools has not been confirmed by the research. Children from special schools are not significantly different from children from public schools in terms of expression and creation of speech in Polish language. And yet it does not mean that the level of Polish language skills is the same in the case of children with and without intellectual disability. Analysis revealed correlation between the level of expression and creation of speech and an intellectual functioning level together with a child's age. The correlation proves that older children scored better results in tasks measuring the expression and creation of speech. This has also happened in the case of children on a higher level of intellectual functioning. A difference of age between Roma children with and without disability is statistically significant – the disabled children are older than those with no disabilities. Children's age is connected with a wider social experience, longer history of attending the Polish school and also with longer education in Polish language. But the characteristics above, in the case of intellectually disabled children, were not translated into better results during the linguistic tasks. The difficulties with Polish language in Roma children's case may have been connected to the intellectual disability but also to the children's bilingualism. Families of many of the examined children use Romani language

for everyday communication. In most cases school is the first place they hear and use Polish language. In such context of learning Polish by Roma children it is worth to bring up the two ways of learning the second language by bilingual children (Kurcz, 2007). The first way is submersion (impoverishing, subtractive bilingualism) wherein the second language – L2- absorbs and covers the first language, L1. In this situation a child gets to know the L2 and is taught only in this language which is why he or she loses his or her L1 and does not achieve a full competence in any of the languages. The second way is immersion (enriching and additive bilingualism) wherein a child gets immersed in the new L2. In order to avoid the submersion, several conditions have to be fulfilled (Genesee, 1987; in: Kurcz, 2007): •a child learns L1 at home as a language of majority that has a high level of social prestige, •teachers and school maintain that prestige, •a child values his or her L1, •a child, parents and school are interested in gaining the L2 skills by a child. Fulfilling the conditions above is essential in Roma children education, for they are both bilingual and bicultural. These conditions are not fulfilled in reference to Roma children. The Romani language is often (but not always!) unappreciated by the school environment and parents not necessarily value gaining the Polish language skills. What we deal here with is a classical conflict of acculturation strategies: the majority's (school's) tendencies for assimilation and home environment's tendencies for separation. Considering the issue of Roma children's bilingualism it is worth referring to the research on it. There are many controversies around it in the bicultural families. Sometimes is is feared that the necessity of learning two languages can cause developmental delays. In the extreme cases it leads also to limiting the child's contact with a language other than the parent's language which comes from the culture dominating in the child's environment. But most often a chance to learn two languages is treated as a unique and important possibility connected with the parent's double-culture origin. The research on this issue shows many aspects of this phenomenon. Due to the dual-language exposition many of the children become bilingual. But bilingualism may be of a different nature depending on whether the child hears speech in two languages from birth, or if the second language appears in the later developmental stage (eg. due to a change of the country of residence or – as in the case of many Roma children in this project – due to the beginning of school). In the first case we deal with the simultaneous acquisition of language skills, in the other case the second language bases on a previous one. There are two theories explaining the process and effects of acquisition of two languages at the same time. According to the first theory a child does not differentiate the languages, he or she develops one linguistic system that later on is consequently divided into two separate languages. According to the second theory both language skills develop independently (Fabiano-Smith & Goldstein, 2010). The research also proved that the more languages differ from each other the better they influence on a child's development. In the case of close relationships of the languages (Kormi-Nouri, 2008), the tendency is totally opposite – languages interfere with each other by interference of pronunciation of particular sounds. Experiments carried out with bilingual children (Russian-English and Spanish-English) revealed that languages acquitted at the same time interfere with each other and this causes slower acquisition of phonological development which means a cognitive ability to reflect and manipulate with the sounds (Gildersleeve-Neumann and Wright, 2010). Siegal (2010) claims that acquitting two languages at the same time helps

to learn faster to understand the right situational way of using the language, eg. to use the right polite forms or to formulate the proper-length utterances. Keep in mind that phonological competences of bilingual children may be remarkably higher due to the attendance in a linguistic-oriented additional classes, ie. different kinds of music, theater or art classes. The correlation between these factors were proved by the research on a group of children from Russian-Turkish relationships. They had more language skills than their peers who had not participated in such classes (Yazıcı, Yüksel and Can Yaşar, 2010). The other interesting consequence of bilingualism are higher social competences manifested by a higher ability of such children to take another person's perspective in perceiving a certain situation together with suspending one's own judgment of the situation. Such ability was observed during the experiments with three year old Romanian and Romanian-Hungarian children (Kovács, 2009). Bilingualism also influences memory processes (Kormi-Nouri 2008). Bilingual children have great easiness of remembering words as well as of identifying words of a certain kind (eg. words beginning with a certain letter) in comparison to children that know only one language. All the research mentioned above indicate that bilingualism of Roma children can be of a great advantage provided that it is correctly developed in a process of school education. At the same time it is important to notice the consequences of tabooing the Romani language appearing in some of the Roma communities (by tabooing we mean a ban on revealing the language to people from the outside of the community). This means a necessity of having only Roma people teaching children in Romani language. The qualitative part In this part we are going to present information gathered on the family and school environment of the Roma children who have been tested during the research. Family environment of the examined students Interviews with parents and information about families gained from the other people examined during the research indicate that majority of the examined students come from multiple children families, functioning in poor living conditions. It follows mainly from father's unemployment or them being underpaid in their workplaces. One of them described this situation in these words: who gives work to the Gipsy and I'd do whatever. One of the mothers said: Father earns 1100 zł a month and I have to buy 4 loafs of bread every day. The families often live in social apartments where children have no space and conditions to do their homework or keep their books. That is why some parents think it is better for a child to stay longer at school and do his or her homework with a help of the Roma assistant. It is usually the illiterate mothers who take care of the children, therefore they have trouble helping their sons and daughters with their homework, or making sure a child goes to school on time. One of the Roma assistants told us a story of a mother who cannot read the time from a clock and for this reason she gets up – as she says – 'when the sun rises' which, unfortunately, causes permanent delays in children's arriving to school during the autumn-winter period. Many of the Roma families experience different kinds of difficulties, some of the examined children are being brought up by foster families. Being concerned with children's education is something very uncommon. Parents find it hard to perceive school education as valuable because it does not connect with receiving money. One of the mothers stated: education not important when there's nothing to put on the table. According to one of the pedagogical staff's member: Roma families are not interested in children's education, this attitude could change only if they saw that education is worth something – who is

educated, has got cash. Bad financial situation of the families results in frequent changes of place of residence, searching for livelihoods. Also migrations abroad of the whole families have a great influence on educational situation of children – they do not go to school either in the old or in the new place of residence. Low attendance (below 50%) during the school year prevents from promoting students to the next educational level, even if their school grades are acceptable. Sometimes the families are fined for a low attendance of their children but as headteachers claimed, it is a very rare practice, usually used when all the other methods fail. The children's absence is sometimes caused by the necessity to take care of their younger siblings, if their mother is a single parent. There are a lot of controversies around parent's perception of their children's attendance to special schools. The two extreme standpoints were identified during the research. For some parents sending their children to special school were seen as something dangerous, something to protect their children from. For others, special school represents a safe and friendly place where a child is not threatened by peer violence and the educational requirements are adjusted to pupils' capabilities. Furthermore, the family has an extra income thanks to a child's support funds. One of the fathers claimed that he sends all his children to special school, he also attended one. His daughter was placed in special school after the preschool. At the same time one of the school workers stated: it would be good if special schools didn't fight so much for Roma kids. There are doctors that tend to diagnose epilepsy so that a psychological-pedagogical clinic could give a diagnosis of disability and place a child in a special school. This gives a child a welfare pension, so the family has an extra income. Special school is often valued for its friendly atmosphere, therefore many children of the former special school's students are placed there. In some cases students in special schools have nearly 100% of attendance and achieve success in art and dance contests. According to the statements of a few school workers, some of the parents want their children to be placed in special school so much that they instruct their children not to cooperate with the examiner during the diagnosis in a psychological-pedagogical clinic. The same people also told some stories of children (mostly girls) who did very good in

primary school till 3rd

- 4th

grade, but who were transferred to special school in the following school year. An ambiguous image of special school has fully revealed not in the answers for a question about parents' attitude towards sending children to special schools, but rather in parents' reactions for a request to agree for conducting the research. Parental fears revealed in the following way: it will turn out that children are handicapped and will be placed in a special school, our kids will be like guinea pigs, my child will be discriminated against because of the test results. It is worth to mention that in some special schools a threat of being placed in public school works as a kind of punishment for a child's misbehavior. At the same time parents of Roma children in public schools are being asked by the teachers and headteachers to place their children in a special school. One of their arguments, quoted by a parent, is: cause the child is constantly crying (three days after the beginning of the school year in the first grade). Such actions of teachers are perceived by parents in a very negative way: I'll be kicking up a row for sending Roma children to special schools – said one of the mothers. Some of the parents do not want to send their children to special school, even if he or she has been diagnosed with mild mental 'retardation'. One of the fathers whose wife – a mother of a girl student with mild mental 'retardation' – graduated special school, stated that a child's attendance in such school brings nothing good. The Roma parents also complained about the schools' lack of understanding for common illnesses (eg. common cold). In such situations schools do not

respect parental written absence justifications and the doctors do not want to write a medical sick leave certificate, even in the case of severe illness. The father called it a racial based discrimination. In the face of such pressures, a proper way of conducting the psychological-pedagogical diagnosis is even more important. School environment of the examined students A lot of remarks made by the school staff were related to the financial support of Roma pupils and their families. Most of the Roma children had an access to free meals in school canteens (some of Roma parents complained about the canteen workers who had been refusing to give take-away meals to children who were sick and, therefore, were forced to stay at home). Moreover, Roma families benefited from the Ministry of National Education subsidies for books and the Ministry of Interior and Administraion additional financing for excursions and other school activities. It should be noted here that the subsidies were used in a culturally adequate way to a various degree. The right and inclusive decision was to spend a part of donation on Roma parent's attendance in excursions. It positively influenced the Roma students' possibility to take part in this event. To give an example of an inappropriate way to spend the subsidies, we can mention spending the money on sport and swimming classes for Roma children. Due to the cultural taboo that forbids to expose one's body, Roma children did not attend the classes. It is important to remember that a similar problem connected with putting on a gym costume occurs during the physical education classes (especially in the case of older girls who have already menstruated, and for that are obliged to preserve modesty). In some cases, it was pointed out that additional financing of Roma children and passing over the poor Polish children at the same time results in envy and tensions with the Poles, and does not help to integrate the two environments. Another way of supporting the Roma children's education was to donate a purchase of a so called school layette. Both parents and school staff pointed out some irregularities here. Parents complained about the stiff rules on donation's clearance within only one category of items. On of the mothers said: there's no more space in a desk to keep it so I put it under the sofa bed, while how is the kid supposed to go to school in its bare feet. Moreover, it was pointed out as essential to allocate the layette money for the whole year. When some very expensive schoolbags and school utensils are bought at the beginning, there is often not enough money left to buy other basic items like pencils or pens during the rest of the year. The expensive schoolbags raised aggression and envy of Polish pupils. In some schools (where Roma parents fully trusted their teachers and headteachers) the school utensils were being collectively bought for all the Roma children, and then given to them during classes when necessary. The subsidies were not always regular. An unstable flow of money (eg. for the scholarships) reaching the school after the school year was finished, caused unsystematic realization of particular forms of activity. Roma students can also apply for the Programme for the Roma Community in Poland scholarship in the following categories: science, humanistic science, writings (prose and poetry), actor's skills, art, instrumental music, singing (different kinds of music), dancing (different kinds of dance), circus arts, sport. Some of the examined students got such scholarship and it was a reason to be proud of for the school pedagogical staff. From the point of view of children, their parents and teachers a presence of Roma assistant is very important in the school environment. His or her role is not only to help children with their homework or cooperate with pedagogical staff but also to provide some very basic services like walking children to and from school. Unlike the other members of school staff, Roma assistants are treated by the parents as trustworthy. They often play a

role of cultural mediators who help to solve difficult situations resulting from cultural differences, for they are fully aware of both parties' standpoints. At the same time the research revealed that Roma assistants are not working in all of the schools with Roma children. According to the headteachers, it was impossible to find proper candidates for this position. According to other members of pedagogical staff, these Roma assistants were no longer hired who had been 'taking the Roma children out' of special schools to the public ones, or who conflicted with the school's management. It is important to remember what kind of conditions do the Roma assistants meet. The current pragmatics of the Roma assistant's employment requires a primary school graduation, and it is not always possible to find a person who fulfills such condition. This often leads to a situation when the assistant's position is still vacant, and this is a detriment to Roma pupils. Recommendations Basing on the research results, the following general and detailed recommendations may be formulated. The general recommendation is to indicate a necessity of further research on the Roma children's situation in public and special schools of the other voivodships than those covered by our research program. The Roma communities' situation varies in different voivodships and the outcome of this research should not be generalized on the whole Roma population in Poland. At the same time the results clearly indicate the meaning of a proper diagnosis of the problem. The detailed recommendations refer to the different aspects of the organization of a didactic process and of a nature of desired environmental actions. I Organization of a didactic process 1. Preschool education Including Roma children in preschool education may be a good way of improving their educational situation. Polish language lessons from an early age would certainly make their future education easier and would eliminate doubts concerning the diagnosis with verbal intelligence tests. Still this way of solving the situation is not an easy task. On one hand, in the Roma culture upbringing and taking care of children is mostly a women's duty and it is an important role for the women. Roma families are often multiple children and multigenerational what makes home care even easier. Preschool attendance is related to some additional costs which may constitute an obstacle due to the bad economic situation of the family. It would be worth considering to implement a preschool financing program that could encourage parents to send their children to preschools. Some of the teachers stressed that if children attended preschool, they would have had a better start at school. Taking into account the effects of preschool education programs aimed at the early detection and elimination of specific learning difficulties, could significantly facilitate their subsequent functioning at school. On the other hand, there are not any preschool programs that recognize Roma children's special needs resulting from their bilingualism and biculturalism. Often also behavior of Polish children, connected with the lack of respect for the elderly, discourage Roma parents to send a child to preschool, fearing that their children would acquire culturally rejected behaviors. 2. Additional Polish language classes At the early stage of education (primary school) it would be advisable to provide additional

Polish language classes for Roma children conducted by people trained to teach Polish as a foreign language. Until this day they have not been conducted too often. The most common form within our research was to conduct compensation classes instead of the Polish language classes specifically targeted at this group of children. A very low attendance of Roma children in school can be of a problem while realizing the postulates above. Classes targeted mainly at the intensive Polish language learning could improve children's situation, for it would even out the differences resulting from the poorer Polish language skills (which can be one of the reasons for educational failure). Many teachers and Roma ssistants emphesised that such classes do not exist, yet if they existed, they would be very helpful. It is worth noting that a lot of research in the field of psycholinguistics indicates a very strong association with the development of vocabulary skills of reading, especially comprehension reading (Snow, Griffin and Burns, 2005; Wagner, Muse and Tannenbaum, 2006). The right vocabulary skills are therefore a condition for learning success based mostly on the reading skills. For that reason, the early diagnosis of a lower level of vocabulary skills may be of an important hint in decision making of an early intervention and equalizing opportunities right before the school education of Roma children, mostly those who meet Polish language only in school. 3. Community youth centers for Roma children Community youth centers for Roma children in schools could serve a similar function. In such center a child obtains help with homework in various subjects, may benefit from additional classes, consultations with teachers, Roma assistants or also may have an opportunity to contact their peers (both Roma and Polish children). Additional Polish language classes could be held in the community youth centers, while the centers themselves would give an opportunity to conduct also other activities than Polish lessons. It is very important to create a possibility for Roma children to do their homework in a center because they often do not have proper conditions for that at homes and cannot count on their parents help. One of the examined schools had a community youth center (organized in a cooperation with one of the Roma associations in Poland) that resulted in a measurable improvement in children's functioning in school. Not only Roma children could benefit from the center's activities like compensation classes or classes targeted at individual interests and talents development (art and IT). 4. Establishing the integration classes It is vitally important to create integration classes for Roma children with a previous diagnosis of intellectual disability. Teachers have far more options of individualization of a learning process when classes are less crowded and when they are given advice on which areas to focus on while working with a certain child. On one hand, child's educational needs are better fulfilled in such conditions, and on the other hand peers who represent an intellectual norm create a friendly environment for a social development. In the case of many children teachers pointed out that the origin of deficits often lies in a lack of parental attention and in not many occasions to contact with a cognitively stimulating environment. In a class of thirty students one teacher has hardly any chance to individualize the learning process of a one particular child. While if he or she has help from an assisting teacher, the school situation of children with special needs may considerably improve. 5. The presence of Roma assistants in schools and raising competences of teachers within the knowledge of the Roma culture

The presence of Roma assistants is essential. They support children's school attendance and help them with their homework. Being the sort of cultural mediators they also play a role of intermediaries between the school and the Roma environment. In many cases these people are initiators of social changes, actively working for a local community or in the organizations associating Roma people. Within their innovative undertakings they become much more convincing for the people who potentially take part in those changes. But the assistants are not paid adequately to their effort and this should immediately be changed. The research revealed the fact that in some schools Roma assistants were not treated by the pedagogical staff as equal coworkers because of the lack of appropriate education. There is an urgent need to create educational opportunities for the Roma assistants, so that their pedagogical competences would make them full partners for the teaching staff in schools. It seems necessary to educate Roma children in the topics concerning their culture. This kind of workshops should be introduced to the teachers, but also programs of pedagogical qualifications courses should include knowledge of intercultural contacts and potential difficulties connected with them. It is also advised to make teachers more familiar with a 'deeper' layer of the Roma culture – values and beliefs hiding behind visible (and often incomprehensible) behaviors of Roma men and women. Cultivating and propagating only such elements of the Roma culture as music, dance and art (what usually takes place) rarely brings an authentic understanding of this culture. It is the most external layer of the culture which can be interesting and exotic, but it is not enough to comprehend the central values of the Roma culture. And without the comprehension it is impossible to develop adequate educational actions in relation to the children of this culture. A very important recommendation for the competence of teachers working with Roma children is to provide them with the knowledge of teaching Polish as a foreign language. Such knowledge is offered by postgraduate studies in the field of language teaching held, for instance, by the University of Warsaw or The Jagiellonian University. II. Environmental actions 1. Working with parents Roma parents have different attitudes towards education of their children and learning of Polish language. They often fear that this may be a threat to the Roma culture and a way to assimilation with the Polish community. Therefore, it becomes an important task for teachers and Roma assistants to allow Roma children to sustain their cultural autonomy while including them in school community. In some schools events like Days of the Roma Culture are organized. Such events give Roma children as well as their parents an opportunity to present their own culture and how is it cultivated. It is a positive example of activities that can strengthen social integrity of the group in Polish society while maintaining its native cultural heritage and the associated sense of pride. Sometimes it is parents' fear for assimilating children with the Polish culture and for loosing their cultural background that causes ambivalent and reluctant attitude towards children's school attendance. School education is not perceived as a way of gaining wisdom by the children, because the wisdom in a Roma culture is associated with age and experience. While talking to parents it is worth to stress that education may be a chance for their children and that it brings a lot of potential advantages like wider possibilities on the labor market in the future or a better quality of life (Kwadrans, 2007; Osuch and Dwojak, 2009). It is worth reminding here that the concept of time perspective in the Roma culture clearly differs from the Polish culture. Therefore, talking about 'the future' is not enough. It should be talked about in a way coherent with the cultural discourse. As Małgorzata Różycka writes, in Romani language, defining the time requires a broader linguistic clarification. The basic temporal categories: 'yesterday', 'today', 'tomorrow' depend on the additional

descriptions, therefore they are less stable. It seems that this may have implications for the perception of the cause-effect chain, planning and effectiveness of interventions (Różycka 2009, p.23). If possible, reading and writing courses should be available for adult Roma – both fathers and mothers of children attending schools. The courses would have to be combined with a childcare during the course hours. The childcare should be provided by a woman from the Roma community in order to built parents' trust and conviction that the childcare is good. Material support for the families (e.g. passing on second-hand clothes) should take place without compromising the dignity and future reproaching those donations (as it happened in one of the schools, where children were pointed out: 'I gave them this', what exposed them to humiliation). 2. Working with local administration •The aim is to create the legal norms that would enable a financial support allowing the integration of Polish and Roma children. •It should be possible to allocate the layette money for the whole year and to purchase not only school utensils but also other items (e.g. clothes). •Financial assistance should be culturally sensitive, and thus it should support the educational activity accepted in the Roma community, taking into account the cultural norms. •There should be developed a special system to motivate Roma children, associated with the fact that they go to school at all. This system would be linked to their involvement in school education process, so as to avoid the situation when being at school is connected with some kind of gratitude. It could also be a factor prompting parents to encourage children to cooperate with persons conducting psychological and educational research, and to send their children to public schools. •Roma children should also have favorable and motivating conditions for continuing education in high schools. •The study outlined a clear issue of a conflict between the groups of Bergitka Roma and Polish Roma. This phenomenon has been previously described in the work of Różycka (2009). It may have an impact on the unequal treatment of members of a certain group when the decision to grant access to various benefits is given to a person belonging to the other group. This situation seems to indicate a need to involve representatives of both of these groups in the work of relevant committees, when such decisions are to be taken. Summary It is essential to clearly point out that this research's aim is definitely not to invalidate the effectiveness of the previous psychological diagnosis procedure which constitutes a basis for placing children in specialist institutions (assignment criteria to the group of disabled children). The results describe cognitive functioning of Roma children at the time of the study. Therefore, any discrepancy between the conclusions of the earlier study (assigning a category of intellectual disability) and the current results can not be interpreted to a disadvantage of the diagnostic procedure. The discrepancy may result from natural developmental changes as well as from a positive influence of conditions in special and public schools on children's development. There are many indications that cognitive deficits of children who had a diagnosis of an intellectual disability in the past, have been visibly reduced. At the same time, information on the erroneous ways of testing Roma children by psychologists was gathered. It referred to the way of using the Wechsler's Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R) in the case of children who did not speak Polish well, and also averaging the scores of Verbal and Nonverbal Scales in the situation when

differences between them were very high. Krasowicz-Kupis and Wiejak (2006) notice that differences between a verbal and nonverbal quotient represent a difference between the ability of verbal and nonverbal material reasoning. They also stress (in: Kaufman and Lichtenberg, 2000) that when the difference reaches a level of statistical significance (p<0,05), the IQ level of the full scale should be interpreted cautiously, and that it is important to remember that its diagnostic function is therefore very limited4. In addition, caution in the interpretation of the results is connected with the fact that the normalization of the test took place in a whole different cultural group of Polish students. During the study we also met with the psychological diagnosis of an intellectual disability of Roma children based on Terman-Merrill Intelligence Scale. As noted by Jaworowska (2009), Terman-Merrill Intelligence Scale belongs to the group of tests commonly used by psychologists in Poland, even though they were never legally published in Poland. They accounted for as much as 21% of all the tests listed. It is worth here to quote the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (2007). Standards listed below indicate good practices that should be considered while using the psychological tools in a diagnostic process. •Standard 11.20 When the testing is carried out for the purpose of clinical, educational diagnosis or counseling, the results obtained should not be interpreted in isolation from the other data. Other sources of information that may lead to alternative ways of explaining the level of the test performance should also be taken into account (p. 204). In the commentary to Standard 11.20 it is written: the obvious, alternative ways to explain weak test results include: low motivation, limited knowledge of the language in which the test is formulated, lack of concepts related to the culture (p. 204). For that reason, it is also worth to enrich a variety of diagnostic tools, such as non-verbal tests and culturally sensitive tests that allow to minimize the distorting effects of specific variables on test performance (eg. level of linguistic functioning and the use of verbal tests). •Standard 11.22 If circumstances require that the test should be used in the same language for all subjects belonging to the diverse population in terms of language, then the examiner should examine the accuracy of test interpretation of the results in the case of those persons for whom it can be assumed that they know the language on a limited level (p. 204-205). •Standard 12.2 The tests selected for individual testing should be tailored to the characteristics and origin of the person tested (p. 225). •Standard 9.1 Testing procedure should be designed in a way that the linguistic diversity of the subjects had minimal effect on the accuracy and reliability of the conclusions drawn from the test results (p. 172). These standards for psychologists diagnosing Roma children indicate the necessity to enrich the body of intelligence tests for diagnosing children and youth with non-verbal and culturally sensitive tests. In this case, various methods provide the more accurate and 4

Minimal differences between verbal and nonverbal quotient obtaining statistical significance level are shown in Table 25 from the WISC-R manual.

reliable diagnosis that takes into account a specific nature of Roma children (bilingual children). The obtained results will therefore be more independent from the language skills level. Moreover, low scores in non-verbal/culturally sensitive tests will be an indicator of the need to give more time and attention to a child. Halina Grzymała-Moszczyńska – Prof. PhD hab., lecturer of psychology at Jagiellonian University in Cracow and University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw. Long term researcher of refugees' problems and migrants' acculturation. Lectures at University of Rochester and University of California in Santa Barbara, also used to work for Uppsala University. Her fields are cultural and religion psychology. Prof. Grzymała-Moszczyńska is also a member of many organizations: Polish Psychological Association (PTP), Crisis Intervention Association (vice-president), Polish Society for the Study of Religions (PTR), Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (member of the Executive Board), Society for the Scientific Psychology of Religion (Board member), Commission for International Relations of the American Academy of Religion (member of the International Cooperation Commission), European Conference of the Psychology of Religion (Board member), Institute for Cross-Cultural & Cross-Ethnic Studies, Molloy College, New York (member of the Advisory Committee), European Association for the Study of Religion (vice-president), British Sociological Association - Religious Study Group, Religious Research Association, and also a member of the Editorial Board of the following journals: Nomos - Study of Religions Quarterly, The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, Religion, International Series in the Psychology of Religion. Leader of many cultural training sessions for international companies and non-governmental organizations.

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Attachment no. 1 Agreement for child's participation in the research I thereby agree for my child's participation in a 70-minutes psychological examination conducted in school by a trained psychologist. The examination will include tasks based on visual material and conversation with a child. I am aware of a possibility to withdraw my agreement at any time without giving a reason, if I find it appropriate. The examination is anonymous. The results have no influence on my child's school situation. date of child's birth:....................................................

….................................................................................

name, surname and signature of a parent

child's name:.............................................................

other:..........................................................................

town, school:.............................................................

telephone:..................................................................