Following international developments and agreements, inclusive forms of special educational needs support have become standard in many countries. While inclusive schools have proven superior to separative forms regarding academic performance (e.g. Bless, 2018) students with special educational needs are often at risk regarding their social inclusion in their class (Huber & Wilbert, 2012, DeVries et al., 2018). To a better understanding of inclusion in classrooms, traditional, sociometric measures of inclusion should be completed with data on the subjective perspective of the children directly involved. Reliable instruments for measuring perception of inclusion are therefore needed. The “Perception of Inclusion Questionnaire” (PIQ) is such an instrument, measuring social inclusion, emotional inclusion and academic self-concept, and is well validated (Zurbriggen et al., 2019). Nevertheless, it is a paper-pencil-questionnaire and therefore not applicable for children who cannot read and write (e.g. children in kindergarten or mentally handicapped children). In the present study, the development and first validation of a verbal version of the questionnaire (PIQ-V) with a sample of kindergarten children in Germany (N=69) is presented. Results show high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .901) and good model fit measures in a CFA (χ2=28.9/df=20/p=.090; CFI=0.968; TLI=0.955; RMSEA=0.0803) for the dimensions social and emotional inclusion. The third dimension academic self-concept proved to be more difficult to operationalize with kindergarten children. Preliminary findings for this third dimension from a first explorative trial in Switzerland (N=150) are presented and discussed.

Bless, G. (2018). Wirkungen der schulischen Integration auf Schülerinnen und Schüler. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Heilpädagogik, 2, 6–14. DeVries, J. M., Voß, S., & Gebhardt, M. (2018). Do learners with special education needs really feel included? Evidence from the Perception Inclusion Questionnaire and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 83, 28-36. Huber, C. & Wilbert, J. (2012). Soziale Ausgrenzung von Schülern mit sonderpädagogischem Förderbedarf und niedrigen Schulleistungen im gemeinsamen Unterricht. Empirische Sonderpädagogik, 2, 147-165. Zurbriggen, C. L. A., Venetz, M., Schwab, S., & Hessels, M. G. P. (2019). A psychometric analysis of the student version of the Perceptions of Inclusion Questionnaire (PIQ). European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 35(5), 641-649. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000443