Socio-Psychological Preschoolers With Special Needs Adaptation`S Diagnostics Within The Inclusive Education Environment

Abstract

The present study aims at assessment of the socio-psychological adaptation of senior preschool children with intellectual disabilities. Our purpose is to test the effectiveness of the developed physical education system for senior preschool children with special health needs in the inclusive educational environment with the help of the methods of diagnostics of socio-psychological development. The target group of inclusive physical education consists of children aged 5-6 years old: 14 children with intellectual disabilities, 7 children with Down’s syndrome, 38 children with mental development delay or general speech underdevelopment, and 72 children without development disorders. There are following indicators of social adaptation of children with special needs in their peer group: trust, rapport, independence and emotional-volitional qualities. The expert has assessed the level of socio-psychological adaptation observing the children’s behaviour in the physical training classroom. We have identified three levels of socio-psychological adaptation of senior preschool children with special needs: sufficient level of adaptation, low level of adaptation and inadaptability. The quantitative and qualitative results of socio-psychological diagnostics allow identifying three subgroups of senior preschool children with intellectual disabilities with different forms of inclusive physical education: targeted inclusion, partial inclusion and full inclusion. The obtained results evidence the proper arrangement of physical education process for preschool children with special needs within the inclusive educational environment that ensures comfortable interaction of children with special needs with children without developmental disabilities.