Students with limited health capacities as bullying victims in inclusive school practice

Abstract

The author of the article actualizes the problem of bullying of adolescents with limited health capacities by their normatively developing peers, when their education is carried out jointly in the system of inclusive education. The article presents the results of the study. The main form of its implementation was an oral survey. The study participants were 48 schoolchildren with developmental disorders. They constituted a risk group as victims of bullying. The status of a bullying victim was confirmed in 70.8 % of students. They are systematically exposed to aggressive influence, which is initiated by their healthy peers in the context of inclusive school practice. It is reported that verbal forms of aggressive impact on students with limited health capacities dominate. The connection between the nosological group and the risk of becoming a victim of bullying is denied. Schoolchildren with various developmental disorders may be subject to aggressive actions on the part of their healthy classmates. However, students with sensory and mental impairments become victims of bullying more often. Bullying harms the physical, moral, and mental health of students. The risks of bullying in inclusive school practice are reduced if students with normal and impaired development are united in one group from the very beginning of their joint educational activities. The author notes that the condition for preventing and countering bullying in an inclusive school environment is the formation of an inclusive culture among participants in the educational process and inclusive traditions in an educational organization. At the same time, when choosing an inclusive practice as an educational model for students with developmental disorders, it is important to take into account their psychological readiness for joint learning with normotypical peers.