Transitions from home to preschool special education programs: Experiences of four immigrant Korean families of children with special needs

The purpose of this qualitative multi-case study was to examine the way four immigrant Korean families of children dealt with the transition from home to preschool special education programs as well as the interrelated issues of disability, family, and cultural and linguistic diversity. In order to have a whole picture of the transition process and to incorporate the different perspectives and voices of both parents and professionals, multiple data collection techniques were used; direct observations, in-depth interviews, and review of documents.;Based on these multiple sources of data, I took a closer look at the transition process from the perspectives of the children, their families and the service providers who were directly involved in their journey to find preschool programs. The most significant findings of this study were the loss of competencies from early intervention services in the process of transition and the impact of transition on the whole family.;Through observing practices and sharing the stories of family members and the service providers, I was able to describe each family's multiple layers of transitions that were elaborated by their children's special needs and their transition from home to preschool. Each layer of transition broadened the understanding about transition, because each layer of transition could only be understood by taking the whole context into account including the children, their family members, the service providers, the different agencies and the schools within a larger EI/ECSE system. Since all of these elements were interwoven in the transition process, it was critical to think about the meaning of transition from the perspectives of different participants in this study. The findings of this study indicated that transition meant different things for different families and different family members.