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Delayed mental development of a primary school student: learning as we develop. Psychological features of mental retardation in younger schoolchildren Schoolchildren with mental retardation

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.

In younger schoolchildren with mental retardation, 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 with similar designs and their individual elements, often incorrectly perceive combinations of letters, etc. According to some foreign psychologists, in particular G. Spionek, a lag in the development of visual perception is one of the reasons for those 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 a wide range of individual and age-related 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, poor 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; poor ability to rationally use memorization techniques; small volume and accuracy of memorization; low level of indirect memorization; the predominance of mechanical memorization over verbal-logical; among short-term memory disorders - 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 memorization speed.

Children in this category find it difficult to master complex types of 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-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 with great difficulty distinguish the size and material of objects as common features; there are difficulties 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, primary schoolchildren with mental retardation identify almost two times fewer features in images than their normally 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 of 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 at a higher level than simple tasks that are 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 mainly related to the external properties of 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 is manifested in the lack of effective use of time, which is intended for initial orientation in the task, in the need for constant encouragement to memorize, in the inability to use techniques and methods that can facilitate memorization, in 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 establish the connection between the unsuccessful result and the wrongly 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 the 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 their 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 to a 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.

In conclusion of the first chapter of the final qualifying work, we 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.

A thorough mental study demonstrates the specific features of his mental activity, the source of which often lies in a mild organic insufficiency of those brain systems that are responsible for the child’s learning ability, for the possibility of his adaptation to the conditions of 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.

Delayed mental development in younger schoolchildren.

The concept of mental retardation (MDD) is used in relation to children with minimal organic damage or functional insufficiency of the central nervous system. It can also be applied to children who have been in conditions of social isolation from society or communication with a limited circle of people for a long time.
Children with mental retardation are characterized by immaturity of the emotional-volitional sphere and underdevelopment of cognitive activity. The above features are compensated under the influence of temporary therapeutic and pedagogical factors.
Scientists Vlasova T.A., Pevzner M.S. In their book “On Children with Developmental Disabilities,” they first described the diagnosis of mental retardation and introduced the term “psychological infantilism.”
There are two groups of children with mental retardation. The first group included children with impaired rates of physical and mental development. The delay is associated with a slower rate of maturation of the frontal region of the cerebral cortex and its connection with other areas of the cortex and subcortex. Such children are noticeably inferior to their peers in both physical and mental development, and are distinguished by infantilism in cognitive activity and in the volitional sphere. They find it difficult to engage in educational activities; during lessons they become easily fatigued and have low performance. The second group includes children with functional disorders of mental activity (cerebral-sthenic conditions), which most often arise due to brain injuries. These children are characterized by weakness of nervous processes, but at the same time they do not experience deep impairments in cognitive activity. During periods of stability, they achieve good academic results.
Scientists call the causes of mental retardation congenital (toxicosis during pregnancy, birth injuries, prematurity, infectious diseases at an early age, genetic predisposition and others) and acquired (limitation of life activity for a long time, mental trauma, unfavorable conditions in the family, pedagogical neglect) .
In this regard, four variants of the ZPR are distinguished.
1. ZPR of constitutional origin, or harmonious infantilism. The child has an immature physique and at the same time mentality. Such children quickly get used to school, but do not understand the rules of behavior (they are late for classes, play in class, draw in notebooks). Doesn't respond to ratings. For him, the main thing is to have grades in the notebook. As a rule, due to immaturity, such children begin to lag behind in their studies from the very beginning. For such children, classes should be structured in a playful way.
2. ZPR of somatogenic origin occurs in connection with chronic diseases that have an impact on brain functions. The special regime does not allow them to socialize with their peers. At school, children with this type of mental retardation experience serious difficulties in adaptation, are bored, and often cry. They are passive in class. Such children have no interest in the proposed tasks and have an inability and unwillingness to overcome difficulties. They do not show initiative and need constant pedagogical guidance, otherwise they will be disorganized and helpless. When children are very tired, headaches increase and there is no appetite, which is a reason for refusing to work. Children with somatogenic mental retardation need systematic medical and pedagogical assistance. It is best to place them in sanatorium-type schools or create a medicinal-pedagogical regime in ordinary classes.
3. Mental retardation of psychogenic origin is typical for children with pedagogical and family neglect - lack of maternal warmth, emotional distance reduces the child’s motivation, leads to superficial emotions, lack of independence in behavior. This form of mental retardation is typical for children from dysfunctional families, where there is no proper supervision over the child, where there is emotional rejection, but at the same time permissiveness. Parents influence the child through suppression and punishment. This state of the child becomes fertile ground for antisocial behavior. The child becomes passive, downtrodden, and feels increased anxiety. The teacher must show interest in such a child, and with an individual approach and intensive additional classes, knowledge gaps are quickly filled. Consultation with social services is required.
4. ZPR of cerebro-organic origin manifests itself in children with organic damage to the central nervous system. The causes of the deviations are deviations in brain development due to pathologies of pregnancy, fetal asphyxia, infections, birth injuries, alcoholism (drug addiction) of the mother, and serious illnesses in the first year of life. Children with such mental retardation quickly get tired, they have reduced performance, poor concentration and memory. They absorb the material in fragments, and they quickly forget. Therefore, by the end of the school year they do not master the program. Education of children with mental retardation of cerebro-organic origin according to the usual program is not possible. They need corrective pedagogical support.
The issue of mental retardation is not very simple. It is important for a teacher not only to have a theoretical understanding of the problem, but also to seek help from specialists from the medical-pedagogical commission.

Introduction

Play is the most accessible type of activity for children, a way of processing impressions received from the surrounding world. The game clearly reveals the child’s thinking and imagination, his emotionality, activity, and developing need for communication.

An interesting game increases the child’s mental activity, and he can solve a more difficult problem than in class. But this does not mean that classes should be conducted only in the form of games. Play is only one of the methods, and it gives good results only in combination with others: observations, conversations, reading and others.

For children with mental retardation at primary school age, play is the main method of learning.

While playing, children learn to apply their knowledge and skills in practice and use them in different conditions. Play is an independent activity in which children interact with peers. They are united by a common goal, joint efforts to achieve it, and common experiences. Playful experiences leave a deep imprint on the child’s mind and contribute to the formation of good feelings, noble aspirations, and collective life skills.

The game occupies a large place in the system of physical, moral, labor and aesthetic education. The child needs active activity that helps to increase his vitality and satisfies his interests and social needs.

The game is of great educational importance; it is closely connected with learning in the classroom and with observations of everyday life. Children learn to solve game problems independently, find the best way to implement their plans, use their knowledge, and express it in words. Often a game serves as an occasion for imparting new knowledge and broadening one’s horizons.

All this makes play an important means of creating a child’s orientation, which begins to develop in preschool childhood.

Relevance of the work:

The current stage of development of psychological science is characterized by increased attention to the study of various characteristics and options for child development. The contradictory socio-economic realities of modern society give rise to an increase in the number of children with developmental problems. These problems manifest themselves with particular force during schooling, when developmental delays become obvious. Meanwhile, the most important feature of children with borderline forms of neuropsychic disorders and developmental disorders is that most of them need not so much treatment as the creation of special conditions for education and upbringing. In other words, the complex of neuropsychic disorders characteristic of these children requires not so much medical as psychological and pedagogical correction, based on clinical, psychological and pedagogical diagnostics.

Thus, the play activity of children with mental retardation of primary school age is an urgent problem in the learning process.

The purpose of the course work: to consider the features of gaming activities of younger schoolchildren with mental retardation.

The object of the study is the play activity of children with mental retardation of primary school age.

The subject of the study is the influence of a defect (DPR) on the gaming activity of primary schoolchildren.

The research hypothesis is that the characteristics of the gaming activity of younger schoolchildren with mental retardation manifest themselves in low gaming activity, a relatively low level of self-confidence and limited gaming roles.

Job objectives:

1) review the literature on the research problem;

2) conduct an empirical study of the characteristics of children’s play activities. 3) draw conclusions.

Research methods:

Theoretical – analysis and synthesis of theoretical research on the problems of work.

Experimental – determination of the study sample, methods, diagnostics, statistical processing and interpretation of results.

Organization of the study. The study involved correctional class students aged 7 to 8 years (6 people) with a diagnosis of mental retardation at MDOU No. 14, Klintsy.

1. Features of development of children of primary school age with mental retardation

Mental retardation (MDD) is a borderline form of intellectual disability, personal immaturity, a mild impairment of the cognitive sphere, a syndrome of temporary lag of the psyche as a whole or of its individual functions (motor, sensory, speech, emotional, volitional). This is not a clinical form, but a slow pace of development. Mental retardation manifests itself in the discrepancy between a child’s intellectual capabilities and his age. These children are not ready to start school due to their knowledge and skills, personal immaturity, and behavior. Mental retardation can be corrected by teaching and raising a child in a special correctional class. Characteristic features of children with mental retardation: – Decreased performance; – Increased exhaustion; – Unstable attention; – Insufficient voluntary memory; – Lag in the development of thinking; – Defects in sound pronunciation; – Peculiar behavior; – Poor vocabulary of words; – Low self-control skill; – Immaturity of the emotional-volitional sphere; – Limited supply of general information and ideas; – Poor reading technique; – Difficulties in counting and solving problems in mathematics. The term “mental retardation” refers to a lag in mental development, which, on the one hand, requires a special corrective approach to teaching a child, on the other hand, it gives (as a rule, with this special approach) the opportunity to educate the child according to the general program for his mastering the state standard school knowledge. 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. A thorough mental study shows the specific features of his mental activity, which are most often based on a mild organic insufficiency of those brain systems that are responsible for the child’s learning ability, for the possibility of his adaptation to school conditions.

Its deficiency manifests itself, first of all, in the child’s low cognitive activity, which is usually found in all spheres of his mental activity. Such a child is less inquisitive, but does not seem to “hear” or “see” much in the world around him, and does not strive to understand or comprehend the phenomena and events occurring around him. This is due to the peculiarities of his perception, attention, thinking, memory, emotional-volitional sphere. The main reason for the delay is mild organic damage to the brain, congenital or occurring in utero, during birth or in the early period of a child’s life, and in some cases, genetically determined insufficiency of the central nervous system and its main part - the brain; intoxication, infections, metabolic and trophic disorders, injuries, etc., which lead to minor disturbances in the rate of development of brain mechanisms or cause mild cerebral organic damage. Unfavorable social factors, including unfavorable upbringing conditions, lack of information, etc., aggravate developmental delays, but do not represent the only or even the main cause.

Mental retardation is one of the most common forms of mental pathology in childhood. More often it is detected when a child begins studying in the preparatory group of a kindergarten or at school, especially at the age of 7–10 years, since this age period provides great diagnostic opportunities.

2. Psychological foundations of play in children of primary school age with mental retardation

Childhood is inseparable from play. The more childhood there is in a culture, the more important play is to society. Long before play became a subject of scientific research, it was widely used as one of the most important means of raising children. The time when education became a special social function goes back centuries, and the use of games as a means of education goes back to the same depths of centuries. In various pedagogical systems, the game was given a different role, but there is not a single system in which a place in the game is not assigned to one degree or another. The game is attributed to a wide variety of functions, both purely educational and educational, so there is a need to more accurately determine the influence of the game on the development of a child with developmental delays and find its place in the general system of educational work in institutions for children.

The concept of “game,” like any complex phenomenon of human existence, cannot be clearly defined or expressed through other concepts. Although there are several related activities to play—for example, “leisure” or “entertainment”—play is unlikely to be defined in terms of their combination, any more than by its obvious opposite, “work.” Emerging at the border between early childhood and preschool age, play develops intensively and reaches its highest level in preschool age. Studying the development of a role-playing game is interesting in two ways: firstly, with such research the essence of the game is revealed more deeply; secondly, revealing the relationship between individual structural components of the game in their development can help in pedagogical guidance, in the formation of this most important activity of the child.

As a result of many years of observations, special pedagogical research and the study of management experience, data have been accumulated on the characteristics of the games of children of different age groups. These features, highlighted by teacher-researchers, are complex in nature and can serve as starting points in the study of the development of role-playing games. We will not present in detail the data obtained in pedagogical observations and analyze them. Here are just a few examples of generalization of these data.

Junior school age refers to the period of childhood. The leading activity for children of this age is study. At the time of study, the child masters the knowledge and skills developed by humanity.

Mental retardation (MDD) is a violation of the normal rate of mental development in which the child has reached school age and continues to be in the circle of play and preschool interests. The concept of “delay” emphasizes the temporary (discrepancy between the level of development and age) and at the same time temporary nature of the lag, which is overcome with age, the more successfully, the earlier adequate conditions for the development and education of children of this category are created.

Also, the concept of “mental retardation” (MDD) is used in relation to children who have mild insufficiency of the central nervous system - organic or functional. This category of children is not characterized by specific hearing, vision, musculoskeletal, or severe speech impairments; they are not considered mentally retarded. But most of them exhibit immaturity of complex forms of behavior, deficiencies in purposeful activity against the background of increased exhaustion, impaired performance, and encephalopathic disorders. We can designate the above listed reasons as polymorphic clinical symptoms.

Children with such development have a complex structure (speech, thinking, spatial concepts) and form the basis for the work of several functional systems. Such children are characterized by non-simultaneous formation of various aspects of mental activity.

The category of students with mental retardation in the medical, as well as in the psychological and pedagogical literature, has alternative names: “lagging behind in learning”, “children with learning disabilities”, “children at risk”.

In correctional pedagogy, the concept of “mental retardation” refers to psychological and pedagogical issues and reveals developmental delays in a child’s mental activity. Observing the children of this group, one can identify significant heterogeneity in the disturbed and intact parts of mental activity, and a pronounced unevenness in the formation of its different aspects. T.V. Egorova, V.I. Lubovsky, L.I. Pereleni, S.K. Sivolapov, T.A. Fotekova, scientists note that younger schoolchildren with mental retardation have a lag in the formation of perception, a lack of development of visual analytical-synthetic activity. When performing the process of solving problems of finding equal images, minor, barely noticeable details of the drawings are not taken into account, and problems arise in the perception of complex variants of object images for such children. There is also an increased interaction of interfering factors, leading to a low number of visually perceived surrounding objects. The lack of formation of the coordinated work of individual systems within the visual analyzer leads to insufficient systematic perception.

Children with mental retardation belong to the largest quantitative category of children in need of special educational needs. Junior schoolchildren in this category can be divided into groups that have:

reduced performance for receiving and processing information; - low level of development of mental operations;
low motivation for educational activities;
weak level of cognitive activity;
partial knowledge of the surrounding world;
delayed mental development with preserved analyzers necessary for speech formation.

Children belonging to this category can overcome the problem that has arisen in a school setting (school), but, unfortunately, most of these children need specially created training. This is due to the causes of mental retardation, characteristics of cognitive activity, emotional-volitional sphere and behavior.

The question inevitably arises about the reasons for this violation. Sources of mental retardation are:

functional disorders of the central nervous system, organic damage suffered in early childhood, long-term chronic somatic diseases;
signs of organic failure (psychophysical and mental infantilism.)
stay and presence from the moment of birth in the “orphanage”.

The listed reasons, as well as severe somatic diseases, lead to functional disorders of the central nervous system.

Children with mental retardation differ from their peers in the field of cognitive activity and require special corrective actions to compensate for impairments. This category of children shows a lag behind their normally developing peers in the development of mental activity, which is expressed in the inability to identify obvious signs of objects and carry out generalization, in a low level of development of abstract thinking, and immaturity of such operations as analysis and synthesis.

The analysis of objects by students with mental retardation is characterized by low subtlety and less completeness. It is these children who identify almost half as many signs as compared to their normally developing peers. However, it should be borne in mind that these results can be improved through corrective work. As one example, you can use the task of comparing two drawings that differ from each other in one way (shape, color, etc.)

Children with mental retardation are a special type of mental development of a child, characterized by immaturity of individual mental and psychomotor functions or the psyche as a whole, formed under the influence of hereditary, social-environmental and psychological factors.

Within the framework of the psychological and pedagogical approach, quite a large amount of material has been accumulated indicating the specific characteristics of children with mental retardation, distinguishing them from children with normal mental development.

The features of the cognitive sphere of children with mental retardation are covered quite widely in the psychological literature (V.I. Lubovsky, L.I. Peresleni, I.Yu. Kulagina, T.D. Puskaeva, etc.). V.I. Lubovsky notes the insufficient development of voluntary attention of children with mental retardation, the deficiency of the basic properties of attention: concentration, volume, distribution. The memory of children with mental retardation is characterized by features that are somewhat dependent on disturbances of attention and perception. V.G. Lutonyan notes that the productivity of involuntary memorization in children with mental retardation is significantly lower than in their normally developing peers.

A clear lag is noted when analyzing thought processes. The lag is expressed in the lack of formation of all basic mental operations: analysis, generalization, abstraction, transfer (T.P. Artemyeva, T.A. Fotekova, L.V. Kuznetsova, L.I. Peresleni). The studies of many scientists (I.Yu. Kulagin, T.D. Puskaeva, S.G. Shevchenko) note the specificity of the cognitive activity of children with mental retardation; insufficiency of verbal mediation, for example, violation of verbalization, change in communication methods, poverty of social experience (G.V. Gribanova, L.V. Kuznetsova, N.L. Belopolskaya), immaturity of general and fine motor skills.

When studying the personal characteristics of children with mental retardation, problems in the motivational and volitional sphere are revealed. Psychologists note weakness of volitional processes, emotional instability, impulsiveness or lethargy and apathy. Children with mental retardation develop hyperactivity syndromes, as well as increased levels of anxiety and aggression (M.S. Pevzner). The play activity of many children with mental retardation is characterized by the inability to develop joint play in accordance with the game plan (L.V. Kuznetsova, E.S. Slepovich). The plots of the games tend to stereotypes, mainly touch on everyday topics, and they have reduced interest in games and toys. The very desire to play often looks like a way to make it difficult to practice and learn. The desire to play arises precisely in situations of the need for purposeful intellectual activity.

The orientation of spatial representation in students develops as a special sensory-perceptual ability. This ability is based on understanding spatial relationships through mastering methods of perception, reproduction, and transformation. In the early stages, development and formation are associated with the emergence of a sense of one’s own body in the child: motor activity, visual-motor coordination, and subject-related practical activities develop.

This ability forms ideas about the relationship of external objects in relation to one’s own body (about finding objects using the concepts of “top-bottom”, “which side”, about the distance to which an object is located); an idea of the spatial relationship between two or more objects located in the surrounding space.

At primary school age, the development of spatial concepts in children with mental retardation is subject to one of the main laws of development. This law can be called the law of the axial axis

This law forms the idea of the vertical, horizontal “from oneself” forward, then - about the right and left sides. The process of forming the concept of “behind” is more difficult for children of primary school age who have disabilities. A holistic picture of the world in the perception of spatial relationships between objects and one’s own body, or rather the outcome of a child’s development, is formed most late.

Mastering a sign (gesture, verbal, graphic) culture, which leads to the formation of generalized ideas suitable for modeling space and its transformation in mental terms, is the next important step. A very difficult level is the assimilation of spatial representations - logical-grammatical structures. These constructions include the comparative categories of our language.

This level is the most complex, late-forming and develops directly as speech activity and as one of the main components of the child’s perception and thinking.

Of particular importance for problem children (in particular, for children with intellectual disabilities, since mental retardation significantly complicates the process of forming these ideas and skills) is the mastery of spatial concepts and spatial orientation skills. Disturbances occur in the formation of spatial concepts in children with mental retardation. Children belonging to this category experience significant difficulties in perceiving the practical transformation of space.

Features of the visual activity of children with mental retardation are determined by the structure of their impairments. Sensory impairments affect the formation of image skills in modeling, drawing, and appliqué.

Highlighting the problem raised in our work, namely the study of the characteristics of spatial representations in students in experimental classes, we can say that developmental disorders do not provide a full-fledged process in the visual activity of children. There is imperfection in color discrimination (recognition of intermediate colors) and such components of perception as differentiation, selectivity, integrity, meaningfulness, accuracy.

The following features can be identified in children with mental retardation:

-attention unstable, uneven performance; it is difficult for the child to gather, concentrate and hold attention during a particular activity; insufficient focus of activity; children are impulsive, often distracted, and have difficulty switching from one task to another.

Many children experience difficulties in perception(visual, auditory, tactile); children do not know how to examine an object and do not show pronounced indicative activity; experience difficulties in practical discrimination between properties and objects, but their sensory experience for a long time is not consolidated and generalized verbally; experience particular difficulties in mastering ideas about size; the process of analyzing perception is complicated: they are not able to identify the main elements of an object, their spatial relationship, small details, which does not allow the formation of a holistic image of the object and this is reflected in visual activity.

Children have limited volume memory and the strength of memorization is reduced; characterized by inaccurate reproduction and rapid loss of information; randomness of memorization is practically absent;

The lag is noted at the level of visual forms thinking, difficulties arise in the formation of the sphere of images - ideas; it is difficult for children to create a whole from parts and to isolate parts from a whole, difficulties in spatially operating with images; the level of verbal-logical thinking is not formed: they do not identify essential features when generalizing, they generalize according to situational or functional characteristics; difficulties in comparison.

Violations speeches predominantly systemic in nature; children have deficiencies in sound pronunciation and phonemic development; difficulties are noted in understanding instructions, the content of fairy tales, poems; limited vocabulary, word formation; problems in the coherent, grammatical aspect of speech accompanying the activity.

Thus, due to the diversity and multiplicity of disorders, correctional work with children with mental retardation requires the use of a variety of technologies, methods and techniques.

Also, in the process of drawing, a violation of spatial orientation is affected; this can manifest itself both in the gluing of objects, and in the location and layout of the image performed by the child on a sheet of paper. Difficulties arise with subject and subject drawing, modeling, and appliqué. Undeveloped self-control does not allow you to clarify and compare your image with a model and give a verbal assessment. Impairments in gross and fine motor skills make it difficult to use and properly master visual arts tools (brush, stick, scissors).

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STUDENTS WITH MENTAL DEVELOPMENT RETARDS. WHAT ARE THEY?

What is ZPR? Mental retardation (MDD) is a syndrome of temporary lag in the development of the psyche as a whole or its individual functions, a slowdown in the rate of realization of the body’s potential capabilities.

ZPR is expressed in: insufficiency of the general stock of knowledge, limited ideas about the surrounding world, immaturity of thinking, predominance of gaming interests, rapid fatigue in intellectual activity. This is emotional and volitional immaturity combined with a lag in the development of the cognitive sphere

Characteristics of children with mental retardation: the process of receiving and processing information is slowed down; spatial-temporal representations of attention are not sufficiently formed; concentration is reduced; volume is limited; distractibility and exhaustion are increased; switching and distribution are insufficient; productivity of voluntary memory is reduced; they are not able to use rational methods of memorizing information; mechanical methods predominate memorization

Characteristics of children with mental retardation: insufficient level of formation of basic mental operations: analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, classification, abstraction; difficulties in constructing a detailed speech utterance; teachers’ speech instructions are not always correctly understood without additional demonstration or explanation; reduced cognitive activity is not formed; educational motivation is impaired; voluntary regulation of behavior: excessive excitability or excessive inhibition

Personality characteristics of children with mental retardation Children with mental retardation may exhibit the following personality traits: brightness, superficiality, instability of emotions, instability of mood, impulsiveness easy suggestibility self-doubt, timidity, timidity, anxiety lack of a sense of duty, responsibility lack of independence, passivity, lack of initiative reluctance to work systematically , attitude towards receiving help, deceitfulness, resourcefulness

Schoolchildren with mental retardation can: accept and use help; assimilate the principle of solving a given intellectual operation; transfer it to similar tasks; study in secondary schools, subject to certain conditions

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Select material of the optimal degree of difficulty: it should not be too easy and too complex. The material should be so complex that the student could cope with it with effort and some help from an adult. Only in this case will a developmental effect be achieved.
Do not require immediate inclusion in work. At each lesson, it is necessary to introduce an organizational point, because... Schoolchildren with mental retardation have difficulty switching from previous activities.
Do not put the student in a situation of an unexpected question and a quick answer, be sure to give some time to think about it. It is not recommended to ask first.
Create the most comfortable psychological atmosphere in the lesson: do not call to the board, do not force to answer if the child does not take the initiative. Conduct an oral interview in private.
Avoid competitions and any type of work that involves speed.
The pace of presentation of educational material should be calm, even, with repeated repetition of the main points.
It is not recommended to give large and complex material for assimilation in a limited period of time; it is necessary to divide it into separate parts and give them gradually.
Present a number of questions in the form of an overview with an emphasis on the most significant conclusions (the requirements for student knowledge in this case may be limited); some of the material is studied in an introductory manner (knowledge on such educational material is not included in tests); some of the most complex issues should be excluded from consideration.
Try to facilitate learning activities by using visual supports in the lesson (pictures, diagrams, tables), but not in too large quantities, because the volume of perception is reduced.
Activate the work of all analyzers (motor, visual, auditory, kinesthetic). Students must listen, watch, speak, etc.
In work, try to activate not so much mechanical as semantic memory.
When completing a task, the instructions should be short. Clear and precise wording of instructions is necessary.
What is important is not the speed and quantity of work done, but the thoroughness and correctness of performing the simplest tasks.
While completing a task, it is unacceptable to distract students with any additions, clarifications, or instructions, because their process of switching attention is reduced.
Gradually but systematically include the child in evaluating your work.
To concentrate distracted attention, it is necessary to pause before tasks, change intonation and use other techniques to attract attention.
Avoid overwork, give short-term opportunities for rest, and evenly include dynamic pauses in the lesson (every 10 minutes).
When assessing the dynamics of a child’s progress, do not compare him with other children, but only with himself at the previous level of development.
Constantly maintain students' confidence in their abilities, provide them with a subjective experience of success with certain efforts. Immediately encourage the child’s successes and achievements.
Develop a sense of self-esteem in children, taking into account their real awareness of their difficulties and problems.

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