The scientific heritage of A. V. Yarmolenko in the space of modern defectology and psychology of dysontogenesis (to the 120th birthday)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the scientific heritage and life path of the professor of the faculty of psychology A. V. Yarmolenko. A. V. Yarmolenko’s scientific research was largely determined by the ideas of her teacher V. M. Bekhterev — the founder of the Petersburg psychological school. First of all, these are the ideas of an integrated approach, as well as the study of pathological phenomena as a method of understanding normal psychology. It is also important that the mental development of abnormal and normal children proceeds according to the same laws. A. V. Yarmolenko carried out the first multifaceted clinical and psychological study of the ontogenetic characteristics of children with simultaneous visual and hearing impairment. Modern special psychology has paid more attention to the psychological and pedagogical direction. And only in recent years, due to the complication of nosological phenomenology, interest in clinical and psychological research began to recover. In this regard, the scientific heritage of A. V. Yarmolenko remains relevant. In this regard, we note the fact that for a long time in the domestic defectology and special psychology there was no textbook on the psychology of children with multiple developmental disabilities. Publication A. V. Yarmolenko “Essays on the Psychology of the Deaf-Blind and Mute” (1961) was both a fundamental monograph and, for many years, was an important teaching aid for many courses of future psychologists and defectologists. This work presented not only the author’s own empirical experience gained over many years of working with children with visual and hearing impairments. The book also extensively analyzes the world clinical and psychological aspect of the study of deaf-blind children.