Having overcome many stages of development, humanity lives in the era of humanism, which is expressed, among other things, in a loyal attitude towards citizens with disabilities or with existing physical disabilities. So that these citizens do not feel isolated, but are full, in modern society, a lot of effort is applied. Normal infusion of people with disabilities into society since childhood is largely facilitated by such a science as special pedagogy. What this direction is, what are its foundations, methods and tasks, we will consider in this article.
The concept, basis and purpose of special pedagogy
For several decades, the problems of studying, raising and educating children with disabilities in physical development have been considered within the framework of defectology. Defectological studies on deviations in the development of the psyche were carried out from clinical, pedagogical and psychological positions.
And only in the nineties of the twentieth century did the development of independent scientific disciplines begin: special psychology and special pedagogy. The latter began to be regarded as a separate branch of the science of education, interconnected, first of all, with medicine and special psychology.
Formulating the concept of special pedagogy, we can say that this is a science that studies the causes, patterns, nature and trends of the development processes of a child’s personality, which needs specialized methods of training and education because of its limited health capabilities.
Special pedagogy is a part of general pedagogy, the purpose of which is to develop theoretical and practical aspects of special (special) education, education for socialization and self-realization of persons with mental and physical developmental disorders. Normal educational conditions are difficult or impossible for them. The basis of special pedagogy is the goal of achieving maximum independence of persons with disabilities and their independent life with high quality socialization and the existence of prerequisites for self-realization. This is very important for modern society.
Often, special pedagogy is also called correctional. However, today this term is not considered ethical. In the concept of “correctional pedagogy” lies the correction of a person or his qualities. Each person is individual and distinctive, society must recognize and take into account its particular characteristics, must offer help to such a person (medical, social, psychological), but not correct him.
This science can be divided into school, preschool and even pedagogy for adults, where in the educational and educational processes, correctional and educational work is used to reduce or overcome developmental defects. Special pedagogy is present throughout the life of people with developmental disabilities.
Tasks and principles
The tasks of special pedagogy involve the adaptation of people with developmental problems in a normal social environment and are divided into theoretical and practical. Theoretical problems include:
- Development of methodological and theoretical foundations of special education and training.
- Development of principles, methods of teaching, keeping and raising children with developmental disabilities.
- Studying the existing methods of educators and educational systems for people with special educational needs.
- Research, development and implementation of these methods for the prevention and correction of developmental disorders in children.
The practical tasks of special pedagogy include:
- Organization of the process in special educational institutions of various types.
- Development of special pedagogical solutions, forms and technologies.
- Development of educational and developmental correctional programs.
- Development of programs for career guidance, promoting social and labor adaptation and integration of persons with developmental disabilities.
- Generalization and analysis of advanced special pedagogical experience.
The principles of special pedagogy are, first of all, the corrective orientation of education and training, as well as:
- An integrated approach to the diagnosis and implementation of the learning potentials inherent in children.
- The principle of the earliest psychological, medical and pedagogical correction of violations.
- The principle of a differentiated approach in teaching and raising children with developmental disabilities.
- The principle of continuity of education of children in the preschool, school and professional period.
Object, subject, methods and industries
The subject of this science is a person (child) who has impaired developmental abnormalities and needs special conditions for upbringing and education. The object of special pedagogy is the direct educational process that meets the needs for corrective education and education of such a person (child). What is used to achieve these goals?
Methods of pedagogy in special upbringing and education are conversation, observation, questionnaires, experiment, testing. Psychological and pedagogical documentation, the result or product of a child’s activity, and more are also being studied.
Modern special pedagogy is a diversified science. She is constantly evolving. In the field of special pedagogy, such subspecies as deaf-, tiflo-, oligophreno-tifloso-pedagogy, speech therapy are included. As well as pedagogy applied to persons with disorders of the musculoskeletal system or with emotional-volitional disorders, pathopsychology, special psychology (consists of sections on the types of disorders).
All listed branches of special pedagogy are completely independent and developed separately. They are spheres of practical and scientific knowledge differentiated by age.
Throughout the twentieth century, there has been a great practice of special education for children with disabilities in the development of school age, as a result of which the school period is the most developed. Preschool pedagogy is less studied, since the issues of teaching within the framework of the preschool period (especially from the age of birth to three years) have been actively studied only in recent years. The problems of special education and psychological and social support for young people with disabilities and adults with disabilities have also been little studied.
Deaf education and typhlopedagogics
Deaf education - this section of special pedagogy, which accumulates a system of scientific methods and knowledge about training and education of persons with complete or partial hearing impairment. This industry includes the theory of education and training for children with hearing impairments of preschool and school age, the history of the development of sign language education, private methods and sign language technology.
Sound engineering can be called technical means for correcting or compensating for hearing opportunities, as well as the instrument-making industry developing these technical means. Audiotechnics helps to increase the effectiveness of training and education of children with hearing impairments, expands the range of professional activities for adults with hearing impairments, facilitates and simplifies their life, life and communication.
Tiflopedagogy is a science that develops methods for training and educating people with partial or complete visual impairment. In educational institutions for the visually impaired and blind, the learning process is achieved by modern means of embossed writing, textbooks that are perceived as mandatory, and the pupils' residual vision is optimally used (large print of textbooks and highlighted main parts of the illustration, special ruled out notebooks and other methods that preserve residual or low vision). The quality of education in such schools to a large extent depends on typography and printing technology.
Tiflotehnika is an industry in instrument making, which is engaged in the production and design of tiflopribor for people with complete or partial lack of vision in order to compensate or correct visual impairment, as well as to restore or develop visual abilities. The development of tiflopribor is carried out on the basis of the knowledge of ophthalmology, physiology, tiflopedagogy, optics and other sciences. Tiflotehnika is divided into educational, domestic and industrial.
Typhlosoundopedagogy and oligophrenopedagogy
Tiflosurdopedagogika is a section of special pedagogy about teaching deafblind children and adults. The processes of education and upbringing of such children are based on a combination of all means of the sciences of sign and pedagogy. Education relies on the sensory abilities of deaf-blind people.
Oligophrenopedagogy is a section of special pedagogy that develops questions and problems of training, education and methods for correcting the psychophysical development of mentally retarded children and solves the issues of their labor training. Oligophrenopedagogy as a science develops problems of diagnosing mental weakness and backwardness, in every possible way improves training and the principles of organization of the educational process. One of the main areas of research in this science is the comprehensive study of mentally weak and retarded children, the determination of optimal pedagogical methods for correcting cognitive deficiencies for its normal social integration and labor adaptation.
Oligophrenopedagogy is based on neurophysiological, educational and psychological studies. This is done for the extremely important identification of the child’s mental disabilities in the early stages with the possibility of applying methods of preschool pedagogy. The learning process for such children consists in classes in native speech, primitive counting, and acquisition of communication and self-service skills.
Speech therapy
Speech therapy (from the Greek language logos - "word") - the science of speech disorders, methods for their detection, elimination and prevention through special training and education. The mechanisms, causes, symptoms, structure of speech abnormalities and corrective action - all this is studied by speech therapy. The nature of speech deficiencies, their manifestation and severity can be different, as well as the effect of speech disorders on the state of the psyche and the development of the child. Often, such violations adversely affect communication with others, and can also impede the development of the cognitive potential of a child who may have withdrawal and self-doubt.
In addition to deviations in speech, during speech therapy sessions, the level of lexical development, literacy in written language, the correctness of the sound composition of the word, and so on are determined. It is established that mastery of literate written speech directly depends on the presence of violations in pronunciation. Special attention is also paid to the connection of the child’s psyche with his speech activity, where the task of speech therapy is to correct speech defects that negatively affect the child’s performance, behavior and psyche. The results of speech therapy studies are very important for psychology, general and special pedagogy. For example, the achievements of speech therapy classes are widely used in teaching foreign languages.
Musculoskeletal disorders and disorders of the psychoemotional sphere
Recently, the problem of medical-social and psychological-pedagogical assistance to children with congenital or acquired injuries of the musculoskeletal system is increasingly arising. According to statistics, there are about 5-7% of children with such disorders, among whom about ninety percent are people with cerebral palsy. Some children do not observe mental deviations; they do not require special conditions for upbringing and training. But all children with disorders of the musculoskeletal system need special living conditions.
The purpose of the upbringing and education of persons with disorders of the musculoskeletal system is comprehensive medical, psychological, pedagogical and social assistance to ensure maximum adaptation and socialization, general and vocational training. The comprehensive approach and coordination of the actions of specialists of various profiles, contributing to a positive world outlook, are of great importance in this assistance.
The training and education of people with deviations of the emotional-volitional sphere has a slightly different orientation. Often here, attention is paid not to the physiological health of the child, but to his behavior and psycho-emotional life. Disorders of the psyche and emotions can be of varying degrees and of different directions. The purpose of educational and educational methods in working with such children is to identify, as well as partially or completely overcome emotional and psychological problems.
Special Psychology and Pathopsychology
As you know, psychology studies the subtle human mental organization, mental phenomena, processes and conditions. According to the principle of development in psychology, there is a general division into normal mental development and abnormal.
Special psychology is a section of psychology and special pedagogy that studies people with characteristic deviations from the mental norm. Abnormalities may be congenital or acquired. Based on these studies, ways to compensate for mental defects, the system of training and education of persons with such anomalies are determined. Special psychology is divided into the psychology of the visually impaired or blind - typhlopsychology, the hearing impaired - psycho-psychology, the demented - oligophrenopsychology, and other categories of people with deviations in speech and in mental development.
Pathopsychology studies the developmental disorders of the child’s mental activity. Pathopsychology, especially children’s, is a science that relates to the frontier areas of research. On the one hand, this section is related to medical psychiatry and psychology; on the other, it is based on knowledge of the psychology of general, pedagogical, and personality psychology. The child's learning ability is studied after analyzing his abilities in speech therapy and defectology.
For the correct interpretation of the results of the pathopsychological examination of the child, they are compared with the indicators of the age norms of healthy children. The role of adults organizing the upbringing and education of a child often becomes decisive in his future life: the quality of teacher training directly depends on the possibility of compensating for a defect or its deepening.
The initial stages of the formation of special pedagogy in Europe and Russia
The system of special education for any state is a reflection of the culture and value orientations of society. And each stage of the historical development of mankind determines the period of development of special pedagogy and the attitude of society and the state towards people with developmental disabilities. Humanity has gone through five segments in the way of public relations with people with disabilities.
The first large time period (from the eighth century BC to the twelfth century AD) leads the attitude of the society of Western European countries from aggression and complete rejection to the awareness of the need for guardianship and charity of crippled and disabled people. In Russia, this stage is associated with the Christianization and the emergence of monastery cloisters for the disabled during the 9-11 centuries.
The second period gradually leads humanity to the realization of the possibility of teaching blind and deaf children, the first special educational institutions appear after the experience of individual instruction. In the West, this period covers from the 12th to the 18th century, and in Russia this stage came later, but passed faster - from the 17th to the 18th century.
The development of science in Europe and Russia in the twentieth century
The third stage is characterized by the recognition of the rights of children with educational disabilities. In the West, this stage covers the period from the eighteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century and demonstrates a radically changed attitude towards teaching abnormally developing children against the background of compulsory primary education. In Russia, after the revolutions and the formation of the socialist system, the system of corrective pedagogy became part of the educational state system. Boarding schools are being created where children with disabilities are actually isolated from society.
, , . 50-70- . , , , .
. . , ( ) .
, -, .
So, above we examined in detail many aspects of correctional pedagogy, the concept, object, subject of such training, principles and methods. Also, attention was paid to the formation of this industry in Russia and in Europe. The educational system continues to develop, so in the near future we can expect not only abroad, but also in our homeland, improving teaching methods and techniques for children with special needs.