Completed by: Priymachok
Anna
Petrovna
year 2013
Methodological presentation on the topic:
"Junior schoolchildren with delay mental development»
Introduction.
There are a significant number of children studying in public schools who, already in the primary grades, cannot cope with the curriculum and have difficulties in communication. This problem is especially acute for children with mental retardation. The problem of learning difficulties for these children is one of the most pressing psychological and pedagogical problems.
Children entering school with mental retardation have a number of specific characteristics. In general, they have not developed the skills, abilities and knowledge necessary for mastering program material, which normally developing children usually master in the preschool period. In this regard, children are unable (without special assistance) master counting, reading and writing. It is difficult for them to comply with the norms of behavior accepted at school. They experience difficulties in voluntary organization of activities: they do not know how to consistently follow the teacher’s instructions, or switch from one task to another according to his instructions. The difficulties they experience are aggravated by their weakened nervous system: students quickly get tired, their performance decreases, and sometimes they simply stop performing the activities they started.
The task of the psychologist is to establish the level of development of the child, determine its compliance or non-compliance with age standards, as well as identify pathological features development. A psychologist, on the one hand, can provide useful diagnostic material to the attending physician, and on the other hand, can select correction methods and give recommendations regarding the child.
Deviations in the mental development of young children school age usually correlated with the concept of “school failure”. To determine deviations in the mental development of underachieving schoolchildren who do not have mental retardation, deep violations sensory systems, lesions of the nervous system, but at the same time lag behind their peers in learning, we most often use the term “mental retardation”
1. Definition of ZPR
Mental retardation (MDD)- a concept that speaks not of persistent and irreversible mental underdevelopment, but of a slowdown in its pace, which is more often detected upon entering school and is expressed in the insufficiency of the general stock of knowledge, limited ideas, immaturity of thinking, low intellectual focus, predominance of gaming interests, rapid supersaturation in intellectual activity. Unlike children suffering from mental retardation, these children are quite smart within the limits of their existing knowledge and are much more productive in using help. Moreover, in some cases, a delay in the development of the emotional sphere (various types of infantilism) will come to the fore, and violations in the intellectual sphere will not be expressed sharply. In other cases, on the contrary, a slowdown in the development of the intellectual sphere will prevail.
Impaired mental function- disruption of the normal pace of mental development, when certain mental functions (memory,attention,thinking,emotional-volitional sphere) lag in their development from the accepted psychological norms for a given age. ZPD, as a psychological and pedagogical diagnosis, is made only in preschool and primary school age; if by the end of this period there are signs of underdevelopment of mental functions, then we are talking aboutconstitutional infantilismor aboutmental retardation.
These children had the potential to learn and develop, but various reasons it was not implemented, and this led to the emergence of new problems in education, behavior, and health. Range definitions of ZPR is quite broad: from “specific learning disability”, “slow learner” to “borderline intellectual disability”. In this regard, one of the tasks of a psychological examination is to distinguish between mental retardation andpedagogical neglect and intellectual disability (mental retardation).
Pedagogical neglect - this is a condition in the development of a child, which is characterized by a deficit of knowledge and skills due to a lack of intellectual information. Pedagogical neglect is not a pathological phenomenon. It is not associated with a deficiency of the nervous system, but with defects in education.
Mental retardation – these are qualitative changes in the entire psyche, the entire personality as a whole, which are the result of organic damage to the central nervous system. Not only the intellect suffers, but also emotions, will, behavior, and physical development.
A developmental anomaly, defined as mental retardation, occurs much more often than other, more severe disorders of mental development. According to various sources, up to 30% of children in the population have mental retardation to some degree, and their number is increasing. There is also reason to believe that this percentage is higher, especially in Lately.
With mental retardationChild development is characterized by uneven disturbances of various mental functions. At the same time, logical thinking may be more intact compared to memory, attention, and mental performance. In addition, unlike mental retardation, children with mental retardation do not have that inertia mental processes which is observed in mental retardation. Children with mental retardation are able not only to accept and use help, but also to transfer learned mental skills to other situations. With the help of an adult, they can complete the intellectual tasks offered to them at a level close to the norm.
2. Causes of mental retardation and their characteristics.
The causes of mental retardation can be severe infectious diseases mothers during pregnancy, toxicosis of pregnancy, chronic fetal hypoxia due to placental insufficiency, trauma during pregnancy and childbirth, genetic factors, asphyxia, neuroinfections, severe diseases, especially in early age nutritional deficiencies and chronic somatic diseases, as well as brain injuries in the early period of a child’s life, the initial low level of functional capabilities as individual feature child development (“cerebrasthenic infantilism” - according to V.V. Kovalev), severe emotional disorders of a neurotic nature, associated, as a rule, with extremely unfavorable conditions of early development. As a result of the adverse effects of these factors on the child’s central nervous system, the development of certain structures of the cerebral cortex appears to be suspended or distorted. The shortcomings of the social environment in which the child is raised are very important, and sometimes even decisive. Here, in the first place are the lack of maternal affection, human attention, and lack of care for the baby. It is for these reasons that mental retardation is so common in children raised in orphanages and 24-hour nurseries. Children left to their own devices, raised in families where parents abuse alcohol and lead a disorderly lifestyle, find themselves in the same difficult situation.
According to the American Brain Injury Association, among children with learning disabilities, up to 50% are children who received a head injury between birth and 3-4 years.
It is known how often young children fall; This often happens when there are no adults nearby, and sometimes even the adults present do not attach much importance to such falls. But as recent research from the American Brain Injury Association has shown, such seemingly minor traumatic brain injury in early childhood can even lead to irreversible consequences. This occurs when there is compression of the brain stem or stretching of nerve fibers, which can occur in more severe cases throughout life.
3. Classification of children with mental retardation.
Let us dwell on the classification of children with mental retardation. Our clinicians distinguish among them (classification by K.S. Lebedinskaya) four groups.
The first group is mental retardation constitutional origin. This is harmonious mental and psychophysical infantilism. Such children are already different in appearance. They are more delicate, often their height is less than average and their faces retain the features of an earlier age, even when they are already schoolchildren. These children have a particularly pronounced lag in the development of the emotional sphere. They seem to be on more early stage development compared to chronological age. They are more pronounced emotional manifestations, the brightness of emotions and at the same time their instability and lability; they are very characterized by easy transitions from laughter to tears and vice versa. Children in this group have very pronounced gaming interests, which prevail even at school age.
Harmonic infantilism is a uniform manifestation of infantilism in all areas. Emotions lag behind in development, and speech development and the development of the intellectual and volitional sphere are delayed. In some cases, the physical lag may not be expressed - only mental lag is observed, and sometimes there is a psychophysical lag as a whole. All these forms are combined into one group. Psychophysical infantilism sometimes has a hereditary nature. In some families, it is noted that their parents also had corresponding traits in childhood.
The second group is mental retardation of somatogenic origin, which is associated with long-term severe somatic diseases at an early age. It can be heavy allergic diseases(bronchial asthma, for example), diseases of the digestive system. Long-term dyspepsia during the first year of life inevitably leads to developmental delays. Cardiovascular failure, chronic inflammation lungs, kidney diseases are often found in the history of children with mental retardation of somatogenic origin.
It is clear that a poor somatic condition cannot but affect the development of the central nervous system and delays its maturation. Such children spend months in hospitals, which naturally creates conditions of sensory deprivation and also does not contribute to their development.
The third group is mental retardation of psychogenic origin. It must be said that such cases are recorded quite rarely, as well as mental retardation of somatogenic origin. There must be very unfavorable somatic or microsocial conditions for a delay in the mental development of these two forms to occur. Much more often we observe a combination of organic failure of the central nervous system with somatic weakness or with the influence of unfavorable conditions of family upbringing.
Delayed mental development of psychogenic origin is associated with unfavorable upbringing conditions, causing a disruption in the formation of the child’s personality. These conditions are neglect, often combined with cruelty on the part of parents, or overprotection, which is also an extremely unfavorable upbringing situation in early childhood. Neglect leads to mental instability, impulsiveness, explosiveness and, of course, lack of initiative and a lag in intellectual development. Overprotection leads to the formation of a distorted, weakened personality; such children usually exhibit egocentrism, lack of independence in activities, insufficient focus, inability to exert volition, and selfishness.
In the absence of organic or pronounced functional insufficiency of the central nervous system, the developmental lag of children belonging to the listed three forms can in many cases be overcome in a regular school (especially if the teacher takes an individual approach to such children and provides them with differentiated assistance in accordance with their characteristics and needs).
The last, fourth, group - the most numerous - is a delay in mental development of cerebral-organic origin.
The causes are various pathological situations of pregnancy and childbirth: birth injuries, asphyxia, infections during pregnancy, intoxication, as well as injuries and diseases of the central nervous system in the first months and years of life. The period up to 2 years is especially dangerous.
Injuries and diseases of the central nervous system can lead to what is called organic infantilism, in contrast to harmonic and psychophysical infantilism, the causes of which are not always clear.
Conclusion. Children with mental retardation have a delayin the development of attention, perception, thinking, memory, speech, voluntary regulation of activity and other functions. Moreover, according to a number of indicators of the current level of development, children with mental retardation are often close to mental retardation. But at the same time, they have significantly greater potential. Special psychology for children with mental retardation is to notice this fact in time and make every possible effort to ensure that the child does not feel like an inferior person.Bibliography. 1. V. I. Lubovsky, T. V. Rozanova, L. I. Solntseva « Special Psychology":Textbook aid for students 20052. Kostenkova Yu.A Children with mental retardation: features of speech, writing, reading2004. 3. Markovskaya I.F. Impaired mental function.1993. 4. Teaching children with mental retardation (a manual for teachers) / Ed. V.I. Lubovsky. – Smolensk: Pedagogy, 1994. -110 s.
Review for a methodological presentation by Anna Petrovna Priymachok, teacher primary classes MBOU Secondary School No. 5 of Irkutsk
Children with mental retardation come to school with the same characteristics that are characteristic of older preschoolers. In general, this is expressed in a lack of school readiness: their knowledge and ideas about the surrounding reality are incomplete, fragmentary, the basic mental operations are not sufficiently formed, and the existing ones are unstable, cognitive interests are expressed extremely poorly, learning motivation is absent, their desire to go to school is associated only with external attributes (purchase of a backpack, pencils, notebooks, etc.), speech is not formed to the required level, in particular, even the elements monologue speech, there is no voluntary regulation of behavior. Special psychology // Ed. IN AND. Lubovsky. M., 2006. pp. 110-134
Due to these features, it is extremely difficult for children with mental retardation to comply with the school regime and obey clear rules of behavior, i.e. Difficulties in school adaptation are revealed. During lessons, they cannot sit still, they spin around, stand up, move objects on the table and in their bag, and crawl under the table. During recess they run aimlessly, shout, and often start meaningless fuss. Hyperactivity, which is characteristic of most of them, also plays a significant role in this behavior. Their educational activity is characterized by low productivity: they often do not master the tasks given by the teacher, cannot concentrate on completing them for a relatively long time, and are distracted by any extraneous stimuli.
This behavior is especially typical for children with mental retardation who have not undergone preschool training in a special education center. kindergarten. Children who spent at least a year in a special kindergarten or studied with a special education teacher in a correctional group are usually relatively prepared for school, and the longer the period, the better. correctional work with them. However, even in these cases, lack of attention, hyperactivity, defects in motor coordination, delays in speech development, and difficulties in regulating behavior often appear.
Despite significant differences in the manifestations of emotions, no significant difference in understanding emotional states from the facial expressions of another person was found between schoolchildren with mental retardation and normally developing ones. Difficulties in performing this type of task were noted only in children with developmental delays with pronounced emotional disturbances(emotional scarcity, decreased need for communication). These data were established by E.Z. Sternina (1988), who at the same time showed that younger schoolchildren with mental retardation are worse than their normally developing peers in determining the emotional states of characters in plot films.
Determining more or less successfully the emotions of other people by the external expression, children with mental retardation often find it difficult to characterize their own emotional condition in one situation or another. This indicates a certain underdevelopment of the emotional sphere, which turns out to be quite persistent.
Based on the first chapter, I can conclude that such children are characterized by immaturity of the emotional-volitional sphere and underdevelopment cognitive activity, having their own qualitative characteristics, compensated under the influence of temporary, therapeutic and pedagogical factors. Characteristic impulsiveness of actions, insufficient expression of the indicative stage, focus, and low productivity of activity are noted. There are shortcomings in the motivational and target basis of organizing activities, and the lack of development of methods of self-control and planning. Play activity They are not fully formed and are characterized by poverty of imagination and creativity, a certain monotony and monotony, and a predominance of the component of motor disinhibition. The very desire to play often looks more like a way of escaping difficulties in tasks than a primary need: the desire to play often arises precisely in situations of the need for purposeful intellectual activity, preparing lessons; lack of school readiness: their knowledge and ideas about the surrounding reality are incomplete, fragmentary, the basic mental operations are not sufficiently formed, and the existing ones are unstable, cognitive interests are expressed extremely poorly, there is no educational motivation, their desire to go to school is associated only with external attributes (purchase of a backpack , pencils, notebooks, etc.), speech is not formed to the required level, in particular, even elements of monologue speech are absent, voluntary regulation of behavior is absent.
Characterizing the behavior of children with mental retardation at primary school age, it can be noted that their behavior often includes lack of attention, hyperactivity, defects in motor coordination, delays in speech development, and difficulties in regulating behavior.
Since most mental functions (speech, spatial representations, thinking) have a complex structure and are based on the interaction of several functional systems, the creation of such interactions in children with mental retardation is not only slowed down, but also occurs differently than in normally developing children. peers. Consequently, the corresponding mental functions are formed differently than during normal development.
U junior schoolchildren with ZPR the following is observed:
Low degree of development of perception. This manifests itself in the need for a longer period of time to receive and process sensory information; difficulties in recognizing objects in an unusual position, schematic and contour images; limited, fragmented knowledge of these children about the world around them.
In most cases, similar properties of objects are perceived by them as identical. Children in this category do not always recognize and often confuse letters of similar design and their individual elements, often incorrectly perceive combinations of letters, etc. According to some foreign psychologists, in particular G. Spionek, developmental delay visual perception is one of the reasons for the difficulties these children face in the learning process.
At the initial stage of systematic education, junior schoolchildren with mental retardation exhibit inferiority of subtle forms of auditory and visual perception, insufficient planning, and implementation of complex motor programs.
Spatial representations are not sufficiently formed: orientation in the directions of space for a fairly long period of time is carried out at the level of practical actions; Difficulties often arise in the synthesis and spatial analysis of the situation. Since the formation of spatial concepts is closely related to the development of constructive thinking, the formation of concepts of this type in primary schoolchildren with mental retardation also has its own characteristics.
For example, when folding complex geometric shapes and patterns, children with mental retardation are often unable to carry out a full analysis of the form, establish symmetry and identity of the parts of the constructed figures, position the structure on a plane, and connect it into one whole. But, unlike the mentally retarded, children with mental retardation usually perform simple patterns correctly.
Features of attention: instability, confusion, poor concentration, difficulty switching.
A decrease in the ability to distribute and focus attention is especially evident in conditions when the task is completed in the presence of simultaneously operating speech stimuli, which have great emotional and semantic content for children.
Insufficient organization of attention is associated with poor development of children's intellectual activity, imperfect self-control skills, and insufficient development of a sense of responsibility and interest in learning. Children with mental retardation experience slowness and uneven development of attention stability, as well as wide range individual and age differences in this quality.
There are shortcomings in the analysis when performing tasks under conditions of increased speed of perception of material, when differentiation of such stimuli becomes difficult. Complicating working conditions leads to a significant slowdown in task completion, but at the same time the productivity of the activity decreases slightly.
The level of attention distribution in younger schoolchildren with mental retardation increases abruptly in the third grade, in contrast to mentally retarded children, for whom it gradually increases when moving to each subsequent grade. Children in this category develop a fairly uniform shift of attention.
Correlative analysis reveals an insufficient relationship between switchability and other characteristics of attention in younger schoolchildren with mental retardation, which in most cases manifests itself only in the first and third years of schooling.
Most researchers note that deficiencies in voluntary attention (exhaustion, weak ability to maintain its stability) characterize cognitive activity during mental retardation.
Instability of attention and decreased performance in younger schoolchildren with mental retardation have personal forms of manifestation. Thus, for some children, high performance and maximum attentional tension decrease as work is completed; other children have the greatest concentration of attention after partially completing the activity, that is, they need additional time to engage in the activity; The third group of children is characterized by periodic fluctuations in attention and uneven performance throughout the entire period of completing the task.
Deviations in memory development. There is instability and a pronounced decrease in memorization productivity; predominance of visual memory over verbal; inability to organize one’s work, low level of self-control in the process of memorization and reproduction; weak ability to rational use memory techniques; small volume and accuracy of memorization; low level of indirect memorization; the predominance of mechanical memorization over verbal-logical; among the violations short term memory- increased inhibition of traces under the influence of noise and internal interference (mutual influence of various mnemonic traces on each other); rapid forgetting of material and low speed memorization.
Children in this category find it difficult to master complex species memory. Thus, until the fourth grade, the majority of students with mental retardation mechanically memorize the material, while their normally developing peers in this period (first to fourth grade) use voluntary indirect memorization.
The lag in the development of cognitive activity begins with early forms of thinking: visual-effective and visual-figurative. In younger schoolchildren, visual-effective thinking is the least impaired; visual-figurative thinking is insufficient.
Thus, during systematic learning, these children can safely group objects according to such visual features as shape and color, but have great difficulty identifying them as common features the size and material of objects, difficulties are noted in abstracting one feature and meaningfully contrasting it with others, in the transition from one principle of classification to another.
Children in this group have poorly developed analytical-synthetic activity in all types of thinking.
When analyzing a phenomenon or object, children name non-existent or superficial qualities with insufficient accuracy and completeness. Subsequently, younger schoolchildren with mental retardation are identified in the image almost twice as fewer signs than their typically developing peers.
The process of generalizing generic concepts mainly depends on the amount of specific material with which the child works. Generic concepts in primary schoolchildren with mental retardation are poorly differentiated and diffuse in nature. These children, as a rule, can reproduce a particular concept only after presenting a large number of corresponding objects or their images, while typically developing children can complete this task after presenting one or two objects.
Children especially experience great difficulties when it is necessary to include the same object in various systems generalizations that reflect the diverse and difficult relationships between the phenomena of the surrounding reality. Even the principle of activity discovered during the solution of a specific task cannot always be transferred to new conditions. One of the reasons for such erroneous decisions may be the incorrect updating of generic concepts.
During the classification operation, the main difficulty for children is that they cannot mentally combine two or more signs of a phenomenon or object. However, this activity can be quite successful if practical activities with objects of classification are possible.
At the beginning of schooling in children with mental retardation, as a rule, the main mental operations are not sufficiently formed at the verbal-logical level. For children in this group, it is difficult to draw a logical conclusion from the two proposed premises. They do not have a hierarchy of concepts. Children perform grouping tasks at the level of figurative thinking, and not concrete conceptual thinking, as it should be at this age.
However, they solve verbally formulated problems that relate to situations based on children’s everyday experience more efficiently. high level than simple tasks based on visual material that children have not encountered before. These children are more accessible to analogy problems, in solving which it is possible to rely on a model, on their everyday experience. However, when solving such tasks, children make many mistakes due to insufficiently formed samples and their inadequate reproduction.
A large number of researchers note that in constructing logical judgments by analogy, children with mental retardation are closer to adequately developing children, and in their ability to prove the truth of judgments and draw conclusions from premises, they are closer to mentally retarded children. Younger schoolchildren with mental retardation are characterized by inertia of thinking, which manifests itself in various forms.
For example, when learning, children create inert, slow-moving associations that cannot be changed. When moving from one system of skills and knowledge to another, students can use proven methods without modifying them, which ultimately leads to the difficulty of switching from one method of action to another.
Inertia manifests itself especially clearly when working with problematic tasks, the solution of which requires independent search. Instead of understanding the problem and finding an adequate way to solve it, in most cases, students reproduce the most familiar methods, thus a kind of substitution of the task is carried out and the ability for self-regulation is not developed, and the motivation to avoid failures is not formed.
Another feature of the thinking of children with mental retardation is a decrease in cognitive activity. Some children almost never ask questions about the phenomena of the surrounding reality and objects. These are passive, slow children with slow speech. Other children ask questions, mostly related to external properties surrounding objects. They are usually verbose and somewhat disinhibited.
An insufficient level of cognitive activity during learning is also manifested in the fact that children in this category use the time allocated to complete a task ineffectively and make few assumptions before solving the problem.
In the process of memorization, a decrease in cognitive activity manifests itself in the absence effective use time, which is intended for initial orientation in the task, the need for constant encouragement to memorize, the inability to use techniques and methods that can facilitate memorization, and a reduced level of self-control.
Insufficient cognitive activity is especially obvious in relation to phenomena and objects that are outside the range defined by an adult. This is confirmed by the incompleteness and superficiality of knowledge about objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality, which children acquire mainly from the media, books, and communication with adults.
The activities of younger schoolchildren with mental retardation are characterized by general disorganization, lack of unity of goals, weak speech regulation, and impulsiveness; insufficient activity in all types of activities, especially spontaneous ones.
Having started work, children most often show indecisiveness and ask questions that have already been previously voiced by the teacher or described in the textbook; Sometimes they cannot independently understand the formulation of the problem.
Children experience serious difficulties when performing tasks with several instructions: as a rule, they do not grasp the meaning of the task as a whole, violate the sequence in work, and have difficulty switching from one technique to another. Children do not follow some instructions at all, while the correct execution of others may be hampered by the presence of neighboring instructions. But the same instructions presented separately usually do not cause problems.
The educational activity of schoolchildren with mental retardation is characterized by the fact that the same student, when completing a task, can act both correctly and incorrectly. The combination of correctly completing a task with an incorrect one may indicate that schoolchildren are temporarily losing instructions due to the complication of working conditions.
The insufficiency of the regulatory function of speech is manifested in children's difficulties in verbally denoting the actions being performed and in completing tasks suggested by speech instructions. In children's oral reports about the work done, they, as a rule, do not clearly indicate the sequence of actions performed, and at the same time, they often give a description of insignificant, secondary points.
Children in this group have a violation of the necessary step-by-step control over the activities performed; they often do not notice the discrepancy between their work and the proposed model, and do not find the mistakes they have made, even if the manager asks them to check their work. Schoolchildren are rarely able to adequately evaluate their work and correctly motivate the assessment, which in most cases is overestimated.
When asked to explain why they evaluate their work in this way, children answer thoughtlessly, do not realize and do not make a connection unsuccessful result from an erroneously chosen method of activity, or incorrectly performed actions.
In younger schoolchildren with mental retardation, in most cases there is a weakening of regulation at all levels of activity. Even if the child “accepted” the problem, difficulties may arise in solving it, since its conditions as a whole are not analyzed, probable solutions are not outlined, the results obtained are not controlled, and mistakes made by the child are not corrected.
Children with mental retardation experience difficulties in the need to concentrate to find a solution to a problem, which is also associated with poor development of the emotional-volitional sphere. Because of this, they often experience fluctuations in the level of activity and performance, a change in “non-working” and “working” states.
During a lesson, they can work for no more than 12-15 minutes, and then fatigue sets in, attention and activity decrease significantly, rash, impulsive actions arise, many corrections and errors appear in the work; Outbursts of irritation and even refusal to work in response to the teacher’s instructions are not uncommon.
So, educational and cognitive activity is unattractive for schoolchildren with mental retardation; they quickly become satiated when completing tasks. Motivation and emotions correspond more younger age. Self-esteem is poorly differentiated. However, no significant disturbances in mental processes are observed.
The delay is largely related to the emotional-volitional sphere of the individual, leading to insufficient voluntary regulation of thinking, concentration, and memorization. With assistance and regular encouragement, children with mental retardation demonstrate a sufficient level of achievement in the intellectual sphere.
At the end of the first chapter, graduation qualifying work Let us note that educational activity is a complex education in its structure. It includes:
Educational and cognitive motives;
educational tasks and educational operations that make up their operator content;
- - control;
- - assessment.
Manifestations of mental retardation include delayed emotional-volitional maturation in the form of one or another variant of infantilism, and insufficiency, delayed development of cognitive activity, while the manifestations of this condition can be varied. A child with mental retardation seems to correspond in his mental development to a younger age, but this correspondence is only external.
Meticulous psychic research demonstrates the specific features of his mental activity, the source of which often lies in a mild organic insufficiency of those brain systems, which are responsible for the child’s learning ability, for the possibility of his adaptation to the conditions of the school. Its deficiency manifests itself, first of all, in the child’s low cognitive ability, which manifests itself, as a rule, in all areas of his mental activity.
It is difficult to call such a child inquisitive; he does not seem to “see” or “hear” much in the world around him, and does not try to understand or comprehend the events and phenomena occurring around him. This is due to the peculiarities of his perception, memory, thinking, attention, and emotional-volitional sphere.
Junior schoolchildren With delay mental development: peculiarities training And education
1. What is mental retardation……. 3
2. Classification of ZPR………………………………. 4
3. General psychological and pedagogical characteristics of younger schoolchildren with mental retardation……………………………………………………………… 8
4. Differential diagnosis………………… 10
5. Helping a child with mental retardation……………………………... 11
7. Developmental exercises………………………. 14
8. Literature………………………………………………………... 28
Given Toolkit will help primary school teachers and educators of after-school groups identify schoolchildren with learning difficulties caused by delayed mental development, find the right approach to such children, and provide them with the necessary qualified assistance in a timely manner.
Compiled by: , – speech therapists from ShTsDiK
What is mental retardationIMPAIRED MENTAL FUNCTION ( ZPR) in children is a complex disorder in which various components of their mental, psychological and physical activity are affected.
CPR refers to a “borderline” form of child development disorder. With mental retardation, there is uneven formation of various mental functions; a typical combination is both damage and underdevelopment of individual mental functions with intact ones. In this case, the depth of damage and/or degree of immaturity may also vary.
Partial (partial) violation of higher mental functions may be accompanied by infantile personality traits and behavior of the child.
REASONS FOR DPR.
1. Biological:
- pregnancy pathology (severe toxicosis, infections, intoxication and trauma), intrauterine fetal hypoxia; prematurity; asphyxia and trauma during childbirth; diseases of an infectious, toxic and traumatic nature in the early stages of child development; genetic conditioning.
2. Social:
- long-term restriction of a child’s life; unfavorable upbringing conditions, frequent traumatic situations in a child’s life.
The specialized literature presents several classifications of mental retardation.
Recently, 4 main types of ZPR have been distinguished (classification has been proposed):
Delayed mental development of constitutional origin(hereditarily determined mental and psychophysical infantilism).Characterized by the predominance of emotional motivation for behavior, heightened background mood, spontaneity and brightness of emotions with their superficiality and instability, easy suggestibility. Difficulties in learning, often observed in these children in the lower grades, are associated with the immaturity of the motivational sphere and the personality as a whole, and the predominance of gaming interests. Harmonic infantilism is, as it were, a nuclear form of mental infantilism, in which the traits of emotional-volitional immaturity appear in their purest form and are often combined with an infantile body type. Such a harmonious psychophysical appearance, the presence of family cases, and non-pathological mental characteristics suggest a predominantly congenital constitutional etiology of this type of infantilism. However, often the origin of harmonious infantilism can be associated with mild metabolic and trophic disorders, intrauterine or in the first years of life.
Delayed mental development of somatogenic genesis(caused by infectious, somatic diseases of the child or chronic diseases of the mother).This type of developmental anomaly is caused by long-term somatic failure of various origins: chronic infections and allergic conditions, congenital and acquired malformations of the somatic sphere, primarily the heart. In slowing down the rate of mental development of children, a significant role is played by persistent asthenia, which reduces not only general but also mental tone. There is often a delay emotional development- somatogenic infantilism, caused by a number of neurotic layers - uncertainty, fearfulness associated with a feeling of physical inferiority, and sometimes caused by the regime of prohibitions and restrictions in which a somatically weakened or sick child is located.
3. Delayed mental development of psychogenic origin(due to unfavorable upbringing conditions, frequent traumatic situations in the child’s life).
Associated with unfavorable upbringing conditions that prevent the correct formation of the child’s personality. As is known, unfavorable environmental conditions that arise early, have a long-term effect and have a traumatic effect on the child’s psyche can lead to persistent changes in his neuropsychic sphere, disruption first of autonomic functions, and then of mental, primarily emotional development. In such cases we are talking about pathological (abnormal) personality development.
This type of mental retardation should be distinguished from the phenomena of pedagogical neglect, which does not represent a pathological phenomenon, and a deficit of knowledge and skills due to a lack of intellectual information.
Mental retardation of psychogenic origin is observed primarily with abnormal personality development according to the type of mental instability (1959), most often caused by the phenomenon of hypoguardianship - conditions of neglect in which the child is not brought up with a sense of duty and responsibility, forms of behavior associated with the active inhibition of affect. The development of cognitive activity, intellectual interests and attitudes is not stimulated.Therefore, the features of pathological immaturity of the emotional-volitional sphere in the form of affective lability, impulsiveness, increased suggestibility in these children are often combined with an insufficient level of knowledge and ideas necessary for mastering school subjects.
Option abnormal development personality of the “family idol” type is, on the contrary, due to overprotection - pampering upbringing, in which the child is not instilled with the traits of independence, initiative, and responsibility. This psychogenic infantilism, along with a low capacity for volitional effort, is characterized by features of egocentrism and selfishness, dislike of work, and an attitude towards constant help and guardianship.
A variant of pathological personality development of the neurotic type is more often observed in children whose parents show rudeness, cruelty, despoticism, and aggression towards the child and other family members. In such an environment, a timid, fearful personality is often formed, whose emotional immaturity is manifested in insufficient independence, indecisiveness, little activity and initiative.
4. Delayed mental development of cerebral-organic origin(with this type, signs of immaturity of the child’s nervous system and signs of partial impairment of a number of mental functions are combined).
It occurs more often than other described types and often has great persistence and severity of disturbances both in the emotional-volitional sphere and in cognitive activity and occupies the main place in this developmental anomaly. A study of the anamnesis of children with this type of mental retardation in most cases shows the presence of mild organic insufficiency of the nervous system, often of a residual nature due to the pathology of pregnancy (severe toxicosis, infections, intoxication and trauma, incompatibility of the blood of mother and fetus according to the Rh factor), prematurity, asphyxia and trauma during childbirth, postnatal neuroinfections, toxic-dystrophic diseases of the first years of life.
Anamnestic data often indicate a slowdown in the change of age-related phases of development: a delay in the formation of static functions, walking, speech, neatness skills, and stages of play activity.
In a somatic state, along with frequent signs of delay physical development(underdevelopment of muscles, insufficiency of muscle and vascular tone, growth retardation) general malnutrition is often observed, which does not allow us to exclude the pathogenetic role of disorders of autonomic regulation; Various types of body dysplasticity may also be observed.
Task No. 1.
"Name as many words as possible that begin with the sound A"(T, O, R, K, etc.).
Task No. 2.
"Name as many words as possible that endto the sound P"(I, O, S, L, etc.).
Task No. 3.
“Name as many words as possible that have an L sound in the middle.”(N, E, G, B, F, etc.).
Exercise No. 2. "Word game"
“Name as many words for fruit as possible.”(vegetables, trees, flowers, wild and domestic animals and birds, toys, tools, furniture, professions, etc.).
Exercise No. 3. “Explain the word”
Exercise:"I want to find out how many words you know.Tell me, what is a bicycle?"
knife hat ball letter
umbrella pillow nail donkey
fur diamond connect shovel
sword trouble brave hero
poem gambling
The purpose of this exercise is to teach the child not only to recognize new words through explanation, but also to clearly express thoughts, indicating the main type of use of the object, describing its characteristics.
You can do all these exercises several times, completing the rows of words yourself.
Exercise No. 4. “Complete the sentence” Task:"Try to guess the end of the phrase."
The children ate... There is paper and paper on the table... Gree grow in the forest... . There are two... growing in the garden. We have a rooster and... . In winter it can be hot... .
Exercise No. 5. “Add words” (spreading sentences)
Exercise:"Now I will say a sentence. For example, "Momsews a dress." What do you think can be said about the dress, what kind of dress is it (silk, summer, light, orange)? If we add these words, how will the phrase change?"
The girl feeds the dog. Thunder rumbles in the sky. The boy drinks juice.
Exercise No. 6. “Make a phrase” (forming sentences from words)
Task No. 1.
"Make up sentences using the following words:
funny puppy full basket
ripe berry cheerful song
thorny bush forest lake".
Exercise№ 2.
“The words in the sentence are mixed up. Try to put them in their place. What will happen?”
1. Smoke coming out of the pipes.
2, Loves, teddy bear, honey.
Literature
1. Anufriev’s diagnosis. - M., 1993.
2. Bodenko, some causes of difficulties in learning // "Scientific and practical problems of school psychological services. - M., 1987.
3. Vakhrushev SV. Psychodiagnostics of difficulties in teaching by primary school teachers / Abstract. diss. for the job application uch. step. Ph.D. psychol. Sci. - M., 1995.
4. Gilbukh - pedagogical foundations of an individual approach to low-achieving students: A manual for teachers of leveling classes. - Kyiv, 1985.
5. Children's readiness for school. Diagnosis of mental development and correction of its unfavorable variants: methodological developments For school psychologist/ Comp. , new, . - M., 1989.
6. Diagnosis of school maladjustment / Ed. , etc. - M., 1993.
7. Zabrodin developments of practical psychology //Psychol. magazine, 1980, vol. 1, no. 2.
8. On the development of the ability to act in the “mind” of schoolchildren in grades 1-10 // Issue. Psychology, 1983, No. 1.
9. , Sushkova k schooling. Educational activities of schoolchildren. - M., 1988.
10. Lokalova to help a low-performing student. - M., 1995.
11. Methods for studying and diagnosing the mental development of a child / Ed. . - M., 1975.
12. Murachkovsky of underachieving schoolchildren / Abstract.
diss. for the job application uch. step. Ph.D. psychol. Sci. - M., 1967.
13. Scientific and methodological basis for the use of specific psychodiagnostic techniques in school psychological services / Ed. . - M., 1988.
14. Workshop on general psychology/ Ed. . - M., 1990.
15. Workshop on psychodiagnostics. Specific psychodiagnostic techniques. - M., 1989.
16. Practical material for psychological work At school /
Comp. . - M., 1991.
17. Program for studying the psychological characteristics of children 6-10 years old and the organization of an individual approach to the child / Comp. . - Syktyvkar, 1991.
18. Workbook of a school psychologist / Ed. . -M., 1987.
19. Slavin's approach to underachieving and undisciplined students. - M., 1961.
20. Samoukina at school and at home: psychotechnical exercises and correctional programs. - M., 1993.
21. Magazines “Education and training of children with developmental disorders”, “Defectology” // 2000-2007.
Children are increasingly coming to kindergartens and schools who are developmentally lagging behind their peers. Observations of children and studying the history of their development allow us to make a diagnosis: Mental retardation (MDD). This concept often sounds like a life sentence, but this is far from true.
Mental retardation is a violation of the rate of mental development of a child. Medicine and psychology have determined norms according to which a person at different stages of development must master a certain set of social and intellectual skills, master leading types of activity, and correspond in terms of the level of development of mental processes. Children with mental retardation progress through their development slower than their peers, not corresponding to the generally accepted age periodization.
Thus, in primary classes children come with characteristic features preschoolers. Such children are not able to engage in educational activities, because their gaming interests predominate.
Causes of mental retardation
- genetically determined slow pace of development;
- somatic failure: chronic diseases and infections; birth defects physical development (for example, heart), deep allergic reactions, childhood neuroses, asthenia;
- unfavorable conditions of upbringing, which have a traumatic effect on the development of the psyche;
- focal lesions of the central nervous system, which do not cause persistent impairment of cognitive activity as a result of: asphyxia, intoxication, birth and postpartum injuries, prematurity.
Depending on the reasons for mental retardation, different types of delays are subject to correction in different ways. The most persistent is ZPR of cerebral-organic origin, which is based on damage to the central nervous system. Statistics show the highest prevalence of this type of mental retardation due to birth injuries or complicated pregnancy.
Characteristic features of children with mental retardation
Despite the difference in the etiology of delays, children with mental retardation have typical mental characteristics:
- Discrepancy between a child’s intellectual abilities and calendar age. Diagnosing a child’s readiness for school allows us to identify a number of indicators of readiness: intellectual, motivational. A child with mental retardation does not meet these indicators in all or the absolute majority of parameters.
- A special condition of the nervous system: fatigue, headaches from strenuous activity.
- Poor attention span, easy distractibility, low performance.
- Insufficient level of development of perception: difficulties in recognizing objects, typification of the environment (children do not understand the functions of objects of unusual shape, inability to abstraction).
- Weak productivity of voluntary memory: difficulty memorizing and small volume.
- Low cognitive activity.
- Lack of formation of basic mental operations: synthesis, analysis, comparison, generalization.
- Speech impairment and underdevelopment, including dyslalia.
- Characteristic behavioral features:
- good nature, pliability, obedience;
- slowness in new actions;
- diligence in performing duties (for example, watering flowers);
- accuracy in handling things;
- the ability to listen for a long time, but remain passive.
For children with mental retardation there are special correctional schools seventh type, compensatory education classes in public schools, where training takes place according to special programs.
Practice demonstrates cases of children moving from specific educational conditions to mass classes and schools after completing the initial stage of education. Children with mental retardation often study in regular classes.
Regardless of the place of study, all children with mental retardation need special conditions training:
- Implementation of an individual approach both in class and outside of class time.
- Preventing Fatigue by Alternating various types activities.
- Use of general developmental methods and techniques.
- Enriching children's knowledge about the world around them.
- Special correctional and preparatory classes.
- Slow pace of studying educational material.
- Repeated repetition of important provisions and concepts;
- Portionality of new educational material.
- Active work on the development and correction of speech.
Mental retardation is a temporary phenomenon. The difference in development is obvious in childhood, but not so noticeable in an adult. Subject to correct correction of mental retardation, children in the future will master certain types of professional activity and fit into society.
At the stage primary school It is very important to instill in children confidence in their own strengths, encouraging the slightest successes of children in cognitive activity. It is better to entrust the education of children with mental retardation to specialists in the field of special education. But it is possible to overcome mental retardation only with constant corrective influences both during and after school hours. Psychological, pedagogical and correctional support for children with mental retardation should only be entrusted to specialists: psychologists and defectologists.
