Comparative analysis of the effectiveness of isotherapy in the rehabilitation of children with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

Art therapy technologies are widely used in educational, rehabilitation and social institutions. It is believed that the use of various methods of art therapy helps children and adolescents with disabilities to integrate into educational and rehabilitation processes. In the special and psychological-pedagogical literature, a wealth of material has been accumulated about the adaptive, corrective and therapeutic effects of art-therapeutic technologies, where the creative nature of the process of interaction between the psychologist and the wards serves as the basis. One of the most common and available methods of art therapy can be called isotherapy. The special literature emphasizes the effectiveness of isotherapy in the correction of the perceptual and emotional-volitional sphere, promotes the development of higher mental functions. This article presents the experience of monitoring the dynamics of mental activity of children with varying degrees of intellectual disability during rehabilitation, where one of the psychological and pedagogical influences was isotherapy. Research methods: observation maps for children with disabilities during isotherapy classes. The questions of the observation map are compiled on the basis of a three-level rehabilitation program using the method of isotherapy. To identify the links between the indicators of mental activity of the subjects, the r-Pearson correlation coefficient was used. In order to determine the effectiveness of isotherapy, Wilcoxon’s W-test is used. Results of the study a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of isotherapy in three different groups of children with disabilities is presented. The most noticeable positive changes are observed in the samples of children with moderate and mild mental retardation. For a group of children with severe intellectual and psychophysical disabilities, isotherapy classes help to pull some children up to an average level. The lack of positive dynamics in children of this group lies in the peculiarities of sensorimotor activity disorders, weak or almost absent differentiation of mental processes. Imagination deserves special attention in isotherapy classes, the study of which in children with intellectual disabilities is relevant in modern correctional psychology.