Special (correctional) educational institution. Special education school system
Correctional education of children with disabilities - as a category
Considering the problem of modern special (correctional) education, it is necessary to clarify each of the concepts included in its name: education, special, correctional education.
The most complete definition of the concept education gave: "Education is a socially organized and normalized process of constant transfer of socially significant experience by previous generations to subsequent generations, which is, in ontogenetic terms, a biosocial process of personality formation. Three main structural aspects are distinguished in this process: cognitive, ensuring the assimilation of experience by a person; education of typological personality traits as well as physical and mental development."
Thus, education includes three main parts: training, upbringing and development, which, as indicated, act as a single, organically connected with each other, and it is almost impossible to distinguish, distinguish between them, and it is inappropriate in the context of the dynamics of the system.
The root of the concept of "correctional" is "correction". Let us clarify its understanding in modern research.
Correction(lat. Correctio - correction) in defectology - a system of pedagogical measures aimed at correcting or weakening the shortcomings of the psychophysical development of children. Correction means both the correction of individual defects (for example, correction of pronunciation, vision), and a holistic influence on the personality of an abnormal child in order to achieve a positive result in the process of his education, upbringing and development. The elimination or smoothing of defects in the development of cognitive activity and the physical development of the child is denoted by the concept of "correctional and educational work".
Correctional and educational work is a system of comprehensive measures of pedagogical influence on various features of the abnormal development of the personality as a whole, since any defect negatively affects not a separate function, but reduces the social usefulness of the child in all its manifestations. It does not come down to mechanical exercises of elementary functions or to a set of special exercises that develop cognitive processes and certain types of activity of abnormal children, but covers the entire educational process, the entire system of activities of institutions.
Correctional education or correctional educational work is a system of special psychological and pedagogical, sociocultural and therapeutic measures aimed at overcoming or weakening the shortcomings of the psychophysical development of children with disabilities, providing them with available knowledge, skills and abilities, developing and shaping their personality as a whole . The essence of correctional education is the formation of the child's psychophysical functions and the enrichment of his practical experience, along with overcoming or weakening, smoothing out his mental, sensory, motor, and behavioral disorders.
All forms and types of classroom and out-of-class work are subordinated to the correctional and educational task in the process of forming schoolchildren's general educational and labor knowledge, skills and abilities.
Compensation(lat. Compensatio - compensation, balancing) replacement or restructuring of disturbed or underdeveloped body functions. This is a complex, diverse process of adaptability of the body due to congenital or acquired anomalies. The compensation process is based on significant reserve capabilities of higher nervous activity. In children, in the process of compensation, new dynamic systems of conditional connections are formed, impaired or weakened functions are corrected, and personality develops.
The earlier the special pedagogical influence begins, the better the compensation process develops. Correctional and educational work, begun at the early stages of development, prevents secondary consequences of organ damage and contributes to the development of the child in a favorable direction:
Social rehabilitation(lat. Rehabilitas - restoration of fitness, ability) in the medical and pedagogical sense - the inclusion of an abnormal child in the social environment, familiarization with social life and work at the level of his psychophysical capabilities. This is the main task in the theory and practice of pedagogy.
Rehabilitation is carried out with the help of medical means aimed at eliminating or mitigating developmental defects, as well as special education, upbringing and professional training. In the process of rehabilitation, the functions impaired by the disease are compensated.
Social adaptation(from Lat. Adapto - adapt) - bringing the individual and group behavior of abnormal children in line with the system of social norms and values. In anomalous children, due to developmental defects, interaction with the social environment is difficult, the ability to adequately respond to ongoing changes and increasingly complex requirements is reduced. They experience particular difficulties in achieving their goals within existing norms, which can cause them to react inappropriately and lead to deviations in behavior.
The tasks of teaching and educating children include ensuring their adequate relationship with society, the team, the conscious implementation of social (including legal) norms and rules. Social adaptation gives children the opportunity to actively participate in a socially useful life. Work experience shows that students are able to master the norms of behavior accepted in our society.
Let's give an approximate meaningful decoding of the educational correctional process, proposed:
1.remedial education- this is the assimilation of knowledge about the ways and means of overcoming the shortcomings of psychophysical development and the assimilation of ways to apply the knowledge gained;
2.Correctional education- this is the upbringing of typological properties and personality traits that are invariant to the subject specificity of activity (cognitive, labor, aesthetic, etc.), allowing to adapt in the social environment;
3.Corrective development- this is the correction (overcoming) of deficiencies in mental and physical development, the improvement of mental and physical functions, the intact sensory sphere and neurodynamic mechanisms for compensating for a defect.
The functioning of the correctional pedagogical system is based on the following provisions formulated within the framework of the theory of cultural and historical development of the psyche developed by him: the complexity of the structure (specific features) of the defect, the general patterns of development of a normal and abnormal child. The goal of corrective work should be an orientation towards the all-round development of an abnormal child as an ordinary one, simultaneously correcting and smoothing out his shortcomings: "It is necessary to educate not the blind, but the child first of all. To educate the blind and deaf means to educate deafness and blindness ..." ( 22). Correction and compensation of atypical development can be effectively carried out only in the process of developmental education, with the maximum use of sensitive periods and reliance on the zones of actual and immediate development. The process of education as a whole relies not only on established functions, but also on emerging ones. Hence, the most important task of remedial education is the gradual and consistent transfer of the zone of proximal development to the zone of actual development of the child. The implementation of correctional-compensatory processes of atypical development of the child is possible only with the constant expansion of the zone of proximal development, which should act as a guide for the activities of a teacher, educator, social pedagogue and social worker. There is a need for systematic, daily qualitative improvement and increment of the level of proximal development.
Correction and compensation for the development of an atypical child cannot occur spontaneously. It is necessary to create certain conditions for this: the pedagogization of the environment, as well as the productive cooperation of various social institutions. The decisive factor on which the positive dynamics of psychomotor development depends is adequate conditions for upbringing in the family and the early start of complex treatment, rehabilitation and correctional psychological, pedagogical, sociocultural measures, which involve the creation of an occupational therapy environment focused on the formation of adequate relationships with others, teaching children the simplest labor skills, the development and improvement of integrative mechanisms in order to include, if possible, on an equal footing, children with problems in ordinary, generally accepted socio-cultural relations. in this regard, he wrote: "It is extremely important from a psychological point of view not to lock such children into special groups, but it is possible to practice their communication with other children more widely" (19). An obligatory condition for the implementation of integrated education is the orientation not on the characteristics of the existing disorder, but, first of all, on the abilities and possibilities of their development in an atypical child. There are, as noted, several models of integrated education for children with problems:
1. Education in a mass school (regular class);
2. Education in a special class of correction (leveling, compensatory education) at a mass school;
1. The principle of unity of diagnostics and correction of development;
2. The principle of correctional and developmental orientation of training and education;
3. The principle of an integrated (clinical-genetic, neurophysiological, psychological, pedagogical) approach to diagnosing and realizing the capabilities of children in the educational process;
4. The principle of early intervention, which implies medical, psychological and pedagogical correction of the affected systems and functions of the body, if possible - from infancy;
5. The principle of relying on the safe and compensatory mechanisms of the body in order to increase the effectiveness of the ongoing system of psychological and pedagogical measures;
6. The principle of an individual and differentiated approach within the framework of correctional education;
7. The principle of continuity, succession of preschool, school and vocational special correctional education.
Correctional educational work is a system of pedagogical measures aimed at overcoming or weakening the violations of the psychophysical development of the child through the use of special educational means. It is the basis of the process of socialization of abnormal children. All forms and types of classroom and extracurricular work are subordinated to the correctional task in the process of forming general educational and labor knowledge, skills and abilities in children. The system of corrective educational work is based on the active use of the preserved capabilities of an atypical child, "poods of health", and not "spools of disease", in a figurative expression. In the history of the development of views on the content and forms of correctional educational work, there were various directions (35):
1.Sensualistic direction (lat. sensus-feeling). Its representatives believed that the most disturbed process in an abnormal child is perception, which was considered the main source of knowledge of the world (Montessori M., Italy). Therefore, special classes were introduced into the practice of special institutions to educate sensory culture, to enrich the sensory experience of children. The disadvantage of this direction was the idea that improvement in the development of thinking occurs automatically as a result of improvement in the sensory sphere of mental activity.
2. Biological (physiological) direction. Founder - O. Dekroli (gg., Belgium). Representatives believed that all educational material should be grouped around the elementary physiological processes and instincts of children. O. Decroly distinguished three stages of correctional and educational work: observation (in many respects the stage is consonant with the theory of Montessori M.), association (the stage of development of thinking through the study of the grammar of the native language, general educational subjects), expression (the stage involves work on the culture of the child’s direct actions: speech , singing, drawing, manual labor, movements).
3.Socially - activity direction. (gg.) developed a system of education of sensory culture based on socially significant content: play, manual labor, subject lessons, excursions into nature. The implementation of the system was carried out with the aim of educating children with mental retardation of a culture of behavior, the development of mental and physical functions, and voluntary movements.
4. The concept of a complex impact on the personality of an abnormal child in the process of education . The direction took shape in the domestic oligophrenopedagogy of the VG. XX century under the influence of research on the developmental significance of the learning process as a whole (, Kuzmina-,). This direction is associated with the concept of a dynamic approach to understanding the structure of a defect and the developmental prospects of mentally retarded children. The main provision of this direction was and remains at the present time that the correction of defects in cognitive processes in children with developmental disabilities is not allocated to separate classes, as was the case earlier (with Montessori M.,), but is carried out in the entire process of education and upbringing atypical children.
At present, defectological science and practice faces a number of organizational and scientific problems, the solution of which would make it possible to qualitatively and quantitatively improve the process of correctional education (51):
1. Creation of permanent full-time psychological, medical and pedagogical consultation commissions, with the aim of earlier identification of the individual structure of a developmental defect in children and the beginning of corrective education and upbringing, as well as improving the quality of the selection of children in special (auxiliary) educational institutions;
2. Implementation of the total intensification of the process of correctional education of children with disabilities through defectological general education and improvement of pedagogical skills;
3. Organization of a differentiated approach with elements of individualization to the didactic process within certain categories of children with developmental disabilities;
4. Distribution of correctional educational work in some specialized children's medical institutions, in which children of preschool age are treated, in order to optimally combine medical and health-improving and psychological and pedagogical work for the successful preparation of children for training in a special educational correctional school;
5. Providing an opportunity to receive an adequate education to all children with disorders of psychophysical development. Insufficient (incomplete) coverage of atypical children by special (correctional) schools is noted. At present, about 800,000 children with developmental defects in the country are either not enrolled in school education at all, or are studying in mass schools, where they do not have adequate conditions for development and are not able to master the educational program;
6. Strengthening the material and technical base of special correctional preschool and school institutions;
7. Creation of a multi-purpose experimental production for the development and manufacture of small series of technical teaching aids for children with sensory and motor developmental disorders;
8. Development of sociological problems related to defects in ontogeny, which will contribute to the disclosure of the causes of developmental deviations, the implementation of the prevention of defects, planning the organization of a network of special institutions, taking into account the prevalence of children with disabilities in different regions of the country;
9. Expansion of the social and cultural support network for families raising children with disabilities, defectological education of parents, introduction of innovative forms of work of educational institutions with the family of an atypical child.
Correctional educational institutions are specially created, taking into account all the needs, educational institutions that provide students with developmental disabilities; training, education, treatment, contributing to their social adaptation and integration into society.
For the first time, special education for special children began in Spain in 1578, in England - in 1648. in France in 1670. Attempts at special education for children with intellectual disabilities began in the 19th century, combined with research on the very phenomenon of oligophrenia. In the Russian Empire, the system of special education for children appeared in 1797 with the establishment of the department of Empress Maria Feodorovna, which paid special attention to orphanages.
At the beginning of the 20th century, about 4.5 thousand charitable organizations and 6.5 thousand institutions for the social support of children, including those with developmental disabilities, operated in the Russian Empire. In pre-revolutionary Russia, a network of special educational institutions was created, and by the beginning of the 20th century, when the experience of teaching and raising special children was adopted everywhere, knowledge was systematized - correctional pedagogy took shape as a single system of correctional education.
Today in Russia, the activities of special (correctional) educational institutions are regulated by the model regulation “On a special (correctional) educational institution for students, pupils with developmental disabilities” (1997) and a letter “On the specifics of the activities of special (correctional) educational institutions of types I-VIII” .
Special (correctional) institutions in Russia are divided into 8 types:
1.Special (correctional) educational institution Type I is created for the education and upbringing of deaf children, their comprehensive development in close connection with the formation of verbal speech as a means of communication and thinking on an auditory-visual basis, correction and compensation for deviations in their psychophysical development, to receive general educational, labor and social preparation for independent life.
2. Correctional institution type II is created for the education and upbringing of hearing-impaired children (having partial hearing loss and varying degrees of speech underdevelopment) and late deaf children (deaf at preschool or school age, but retaining independent speech), their comprehensive development based on the formation of verbal speech, preparation for free speech communication on auditory and auditory-visual basis. Education of hearing-impaired children has a corrective orientation, which contributes to overcoming deviations in development. At the same time, during the entire educational process, special attention is paid to the development of auditory perception and work on the formation of oral speech. Pupils are provided with active speech practice by creating an auditory-speech environment (using sound-amplifying equipment), which makes it possible to form speech on an auditory basis that is close to natural sound.
3.4. Correctional institutions III and IV types provide training, education, correction of primary and secondary deviations in the development of pupils with visual impairments, the development of safe analyzers, the formation of correctional and compensatory skills that contribute to the social adaptation of pupils in society. If necessary, joint (in one correctional institution) training of blind and visually impaired children, children with strabismus and amblyopia can be organized.
5. Correctional institution Type V It is created to educate and educate children with severe speech pathology, to provide them with specialized assistance that helps to overcome speech disorders and related features of mental development.
6. Correctional institution Type VI created for the education and upbringing of children with disorders of the musculoskeletal system (with motor disorders of various etiology and severity, cerebral palsy, with congenital and acquired deformities of the musculoskeletal system, flaccid paralysis of the upper and lower extremities, paresis and paraparesis of the lower and upper extremities ), for the restoration, formation and development of motor functions, correction of deficiencies in the mental and speech development of children, their social and labor adaptation and integration into society on the basis of a specially organized motor regime and subject-practical activities.
7. Correctional institution type VII is created for the education and upbringing of children with mental retardation, who, with potentially preserved opportunities for intellectual development, have weakness of memory, attention, lack of pace and mobility of mental processes, increased exhaustion, unformed voluntary regulation of activity, emotional instability, to ensure the correction of their mental development and emotional-volitional sphere, activation of cognitive activity, formation of skills and abilities of educational activity.
8. Correctional institution Type VIII is created for the education and upbringing of children with mental retardation in order to correct deviations in their development by means of education and labor training, as well as socio-psychological rehabilitation for subsequent integration into society.
The educational process in institutions of 1-6 types is carried out in accordance with the general educational program of general education.
From the foregoing, we see that the main goals of correctional education of any kind are social adaptation and integration of a special child into society, that is, the goals are completely identical to inclusion. So what is the difference between inclusive and specialized education? First of all, in the ways of achieving the set goal.
1. The methodology of special education is formed on the basis of knowledge of the physiological and mental characteristics of children with developmental disabilities. Individual and differentiated approach, special equipment, special techniques, visualization and didactics in explaining the material, special organization of the regimen and occupancy of classes based on the characteristics of children, nutrition, treatment, unified work of speech pathologists, speech therapists, psychologists, doctors ... this is not the whole list what is not and cannot be represented in a mass school.
2. The main goal of a mass school is to give students knowledge for their subsequent use. In a general education institution, it is the level of knowledge that is primarily and significantly evaluated, education takes 5-10% of the program. In correctional institutions, on the contrary, first of all, most of the program 70 - 80% is occupied by education. Labor 50%, physical and moral 20 - 30%. Great emphasis and emphasis is placed on teaching labor skills, while each correctional school, in accordance with its type, has its own workshops in which children are trained in precisely those professions that are available and allowed to them, in accordance with the approved list.
3. The organization of education in a correctional school consists of 2 parts. In the first half of the day, children receive knowledge from teachers, and in the second half of the day, after lunch and a walk, they study with a teacher who has his own program. This is learning the rules of the road. Rules of conduct in public places. Etiquette. Role-playing games, excursions, practical tasks with subsequent analysis and analysis of the situation. Handicrafts... And much more, which is not provided for by the general education program.
So the question arises, who is better at socializing, adapting and integrating special children to life in a macro society with such significantly different approaches? Is it worth so ruthlessly destroying what has been accumulated for centuries, worked out, created for special children? Shops, yards, playgrounds, children's infrastructure, cooperation between mass and correctional schools are quite a sufficient stadium for the introduction of special children into society. So what is the essence of inclusion? And do we really need it so badly?
This is a stub for an article by Vadim Meleshko ("Teacher's Newspaper"), based on interviews with specialists in remedial pedagogy. The author himself admits that it is crude and may contain some inaccuracies, but I liked it with rich content, coverage of the widest range of problems related to teaching children, as they say now, with developmental disabilities. The state proclaimed the right of every child to study in a general education school and the obligation of educational organizations to create appropriate conditions for him. The task is difficult even with a superficial glance of any sane person. The article raises problems from the point of view of professionals - it becomes clear that they cannot be solved with a tip. There are few good wishes, painstaking work is required to create conditions in schools so that the process of educating children with disabilities, children with disabilities is really useful, and does not become a torment for all participants in educational relations.
Correctional education: yesterday, today, tomorrow
Many reforms carried out in the education system cause a very ambiguous assessment of both ordinary teachers and specialists, researchers and scientists. One of these reforms is related to the restructuring of the system of special correctional schools against the backdrop of active promotion of inclusive education. The arguments of the reformers are logical in their own way: after all, a barrier-free environment for the disabled has been implemented abroad, where children can study together, regardless of whether they have any congenital defects, why are we worse?
Parallel Curves
Before criticizing the current approaches to solving the problems of special education, let's remember how they were tried to solve in the past. In Soviet times, there were two systems of education in parallel - general and special. They practically did not intersect, moreover, the vast majority of citizens simply did not suspect the existence of a system of special education for the disabled.
From today's positions, we can evaluate everything that was created then in different ways, but it should be clearly understood: it was a system ordered by the state. The state financed it, provided it with personnel, scientific developments and legislation - first of all, the law “On General, General and Secondary Education” and the Regulations on the Unified Labor School.
different categories
In those days, for children with disabilities, which today it is customary to call politically correct “children with disabilities” or “children with special educational needs”, the term “defective” was coined indecent by today's standards, which was then replaced by another - “abnormal”, and only then - "children with mental and physical development disorders". This category included children with hearing, vision, severe speech disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, mental retardation and mentally retarded. For these categories of children, the state, based on the principle of universal education, began to build a system of special education. Initially, it was built as a school of the first stage, that is, as an elementary school. As the system of general education improved and the boundaries of universal education changed, they started talking about the seven-year plan, and then about the full secondary school. That is, there was differentiation both horizontally and vertically.
Later, these children began to be legally transferred to the development of a new, more complex program. However, they could not acquire knowledge within the existing time frame due to their health characteristics. Then schools began to differentiate: children with hearing impairments were divided into deaf and hard of hearing, two departments arose - for the hard of hearing and late deaf. In the same way, they divided children with visual problems, dividing them into blind and visually impaired. Thus, to this day, we have preserved the division of special schools into 8 types:
I. deaf,
II. hard of hearing and late deaf,
III. blind,
IV. visually impaired,
V. with severe speech pathology,
VI. with disorders of the musculoskeletal system,
VII. with mental retardation,
VIII. mentally retarded.
Less theory, more practice
Mechanical lengthening of training periods and raising the level of universal education have led to some paradoxes and distortions, and in this our system differs significantly from foreign ones.
Initially, it was clear to specialists that mentally retarded children with mental disabilities are not able to master the educational program designed for children without such disabilities. But universal education demanded - first grade 4, then 7, then 9, then 10, and finally 11. Formally fulfilling the requirements of universal education, I just had to stretch the program. The academic component remained the same, within the framework of primary education, and the component of labor education and pre-vocational training increased from year to year. That is, in the senior classes, in fact, children were taught to work with their hands for almost the entire week, they were given the basics of the profession. Is it good or bad? At least, before this approach suited the state and society.
The guys were prepared for real work - low-skilled or unskilled, they were given the basics of professions available to them according to their level of development. The vast majority of graduates of auxiliary schools were employed, able to live on their wages and benefit society. Some of them during the Great Patriotic War fought very well, were awarded orders and medals. And then no one remembered their mental characteristics.
Complication = more expensive
As for the rest of the children who do not have mental disabilities, as the programs became more complicated, the teachers of special schools found themselves in a difficult position. On the one hand, children do not seem to suffer from mental retardation, which means they must master the general education program, albeit adapted (although it was far from always clear what the essence of this adaptation was, so everything came down to special methodological techniques and technologies). On the other hand, the terms of training were increased, the number of classes was reduced. And all this has led to an increase in the cost of education for this category of children.
A significant part of the graduates of special schools received a good education, they could enter technical schools or even universities, that is, engage in not only physical, but also mental labor. They turned out to be successful citizens of the country. But alignment with general education schools led to the fact that the system had to be complicated. First, we went to the opening of special kindergartens, then lowered the start date for training even lower, to a nursery. I will tell you in secret that the idea of teaching deaf babies and their mothers was proposed by our great scientists in the 1920s. And the effectiveness of this training has been proven experimentally. Another thing is that the state in those years could not implement these ideas.
Doubtful effect
Let me remind you that the history of teaching special categories of children historically begins with the teaching of the deaf. It is in this direction that the most experience has been gained, it is from here that all innovations and achievements, including organizational and structural ones, come. Why deaf people? Initially, because from the point of view of Roman law, a deaf person is dead, since he cannot communicate with the court, which means that the court does not recognize him as a person. And for the Christian church, a deaf person is a dissident, since he does not hear the word of God. And the first teachers of the deaf were Western clergy, whose goal was to bring him to church in order to recognize him as an equal believer. And for this you need to give him oral speech.
The state starts teaching deaf children from the age of 3, then they come to school and study for another 10-11 years. Then they receive post-school education in schools, where they are given the basics of the profession. But if you look at all this through the eyes of an economist, it turns out that children from schools of types 1-8 study much longer than ordinary ones. They need special conditions, special textbooks, teaching aids, notebooks. The occupancy rate in classes of special schools is lower, teachers' salaries are higher. Consequently, the education of special categories of children is about 3-5 times more expensive, and the training time is almost 2 times longer. It is clear that no budget can withstand this. But, most importantly, what effect do we get at the output? How tangible in the future is the economic return for the state that finances all this?
Economically unprofitable
By the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s, countries that had gone much further than us in training and employing people with disabilities came to the conclusion that it was cheaper to provide these people with social assistance than to provide them with jobs.
Coming to the developed countries of the West, we admire the level and quality of life of the disabled. These are free medical care, free prosthetics, sports for the disabled, etc. the Western world has gone in the direction of improving the quality of life. These are leisure, culture, social mobility. Since the late 60s, they have abandoned expensive universal education, and at the expense of savings, they began to spend money on improving the quality of life. And besides, unlike us, they predicted the development of the market very early. And it turned out that there would simply be no place for graduates of special schools. In fact, the state created a system of universal education for the disabled, went to great expense, thinking that in the future they would find their niche, take up the work that no one undertakes, but then it turned out that there was no effect from this, no benefits either. What the disabled person returned to the state in the form of payroll taxes does not pay back what it has invested in him for all the years of education.
It turned out that the labor market is being technologized, there is not enough space even for healthy people, let alone the disabled. In addition, third world countries are able to provide cheap labor for any needs of the economy. Why would a wealthy Western state spend money on training a local disabled shoemaker, if it is easier for it to hire a healthy craftsman from Africa or India, and give its disabled person the opportunity to go in for sports, culture, etc.?
The birth of inclusion
We admire the charity of many foreign firms and companies, they say, how much they invest in disabled people. But if you take an interest in the local legislation, it turns out that the creation of one workplace for a disabled person and the amount of fines in case of loss of health by him at work amount to a much larger amount. Therefore, rather than investing a million to ensure the safety of one disabled person at work, it is easier and easier to donate half a million to give him the opportunity to develop culturally. It is both beautiful and economical.
And here the ideas of inclusion are born for the first time. Moreover, the first to talk about it were not teachers at all, but economists. In their opinion, if teaching disabled people in special schools en masse is too expensive for the state, why not start teaching them in ordinary general education institutions, among normal people?
Other priorities
So, it became clear that the system of universal education for the disabled, previously created in a number of states (if we take the leaders in this direction - Germany, England, France, the USSR, the USA, Canada), faced the same problems. However, they were solved there in completely different ways. So, Germany produces useful artisans - shoemakers, carpenters, builders, France prepares law-abiding and devout socially adapted and culturally developed Catholics, and England produces independent citizens who are serious about their health and family. But shoes and clothes for an Englishman are not sewn by British invalids, but by Asian shoemakers and tailors.
Consequently, the goals of special education in these countries are different. And when we say that we must do the same as abroad, this is an abstract statement, because abroad everything is far from being so unambiguous. It is hardly possible to talk about any one universal and acceptable model for us. Inclusion in post-Franco poor agricultural Spain, inclusion in Germany destroyed by two wars, and inclusion in Scandinavia, which did not participate in any world war, these are three fundamentally different inclusions. Just as there are no “universal values” that are common to all, without exception, there is no single “recipe” for inclusive education that would be equally successfully applied everywhere in the world.
thorny path
Today, in a number of so-called "welfare countries" free education and free medicine. But it is worth recalling that in Sweden they have become such for more than 100 years, in Denmark even earlier. Denmark introduced free service for the disabled in 1933, and we still cannot decide which is better - privileges or benefits. In this country, infant hearing screening was introduced in 1943. And at that time we had a battle on the Kursk Bulge. The Danes were solving exactly this problem, and we did not know if we would survive at all as a nation. It is not surprising that at the end of the 70s of the last century, the Scandinavians achieved a very high standard of living, when medical care, education, social security can be guaranteed to any person directly at the place of residence, wherever he lives. Therefore, they did not need that cumbersome system of correctional schools, which still exists in other countries. They solved this problem in a different way.
Prosperous countries have gone in the direction of inclusion because they do not need such a number of highly educated people, including people with disabilities, if the number of places in the labor market is constantly decreasing. In a situation where highly qualified specialists cannot find work, one can hardly hope that mentally retarded people will find it. And it is hardly necessary to specifically provide places for this category of citizens, if you can take others with experience. You need to go the other way. For example, to create charitable foundations, public organizations, to involve the church. And we decided: let's do it like in the West, invest a lot of money, but take it from the budget. You can not do it this way! This, firstly, is too irrational, and secondly, it contradicts the logic of the evolutionary development of educational systems.
Such different inclusions
In 1990, Boris Yeltsin signed all international agreements, yesterday we lived in a country proud of the system of special schools, and today it turned out that the very existence of such institutions is discrimination against people with disabilities.
Meanwhile, the "welfare" countries from which we decided to take an example developed in accordance with their own history. The elite countries of special education are Northern Europe. Countries that succeeded in this, but experienced serious upheavals in the 20th century, are France, Germany, England. And, finally, there are the countries of Southern Europe - Spain, Portugal, Greece, etc. But there, later than others, they recognized the right of the mentally retarded to receive an education. And it is there, for example, that the entire 20th century is fascist regimes. Franco in Spain, Salazar in Portugal, Mussolini in Italy, black colonels in Greece, etc. And the ideology of fascism is quite frank: if there are inferior people whose content takes away bread from others, normal, then why are they at all? Therefore, the first thing Hitler did was to pass a law on the euthanasia of deeply mentally retarded citizens and psychiatric patients. But this is a dangerous path, because if you recognize that there are people more valuable, less valuable and generally unnecessary, get ready that tomorrow someone will recognize you as not valuable enough.
By the way, Napoleon once closed the first schools for the blind, because he was a southerner and decided that there was no need to educate the disabled at the expense of the budget, because they could earn much more by alms. If there are almshouses organized by the church and individual citizens, why strain the state? If a citizen wants his disabled child to study in good conditions, please, but let it be a private school. Based on this logic, the blind began to be taught en masse much later, precisely because they did not see an economic reason for this before.
jump over your head
Returning to the problems of the current period, we can say that the crisis of correctional education lies in the fact that we are trying to try on someone else's model for ourselves, not realizing that it simply does not suit us.
We have a very short history, and we are trying to skip the natural stage of development. About 30 years ago, not a single journalist, not a single official even approximately knew about the problems of correctional schools. Yes, our successes were recognized all over the world, but inside the country they were almost unknown. But, let me remind you that the famous experiment with teaching the deaf-blind (they are also called deaf-blind-mute) was staged precisely in the USSR. In the 1960s, specialists from our research institute worked for several years with four students who had deep pathologies of the organs of hearing and vision. They taught them to speak, gave them a solid school education, as a result of which they entered the university and graduated from it. One of these students, Alexander Vasilievich Suvorov, became a professor, doctor of psychological sciences, a teacher at two Moscow universities. Is anyone able to repeat this experiment today?
I can say with all confidence: as far as the scientific heritage is concerned, our country traditionally ranks among the leaders in the field of correctional pedagogy. Another thing is that in practice all scientific achievements we fail to implement. But here the state must already conclude what should be taken, whose experience should be borrowed - our own, proven and guaranteed, or foreign, applicable in a different culture, economy and traditions. And these are problems, you see, of political will, and not at all of defectology as a science.
Legislated
In recent years, a regulatory framework has been developed that has significantly expanded and consolidated the rights of parents to choose an educational route, the right of a student to receive education in a particular institution. Initially, everyone was guided by the provision on a unified labor school, but today children with a serious medical diagnosis can fully study. You just need to know where and how best to train them. The presence of violations does not mean a ban on attending general education schools. Maybe it's another matter that we are embarrassed by the other extreme: if before everyone was driven in a herd to special schools, today in the same way they are driven in a crowd to general educational institutions. I am an active opponent of this approach.
The first normative document, which is directly related to the education of disabled people, was adopted by Denmark. It was called the Education for the Deaf Act, which is sort of the prototype of the Special Education Act. So, it was adopted back in 1817. In our country, the basic federal law on the education of children with disabilities was adopted in 2012. Everything that was before that was departmental regulations, orders of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Education, etc. There are many critics of the law "On Education in the Russian Federation", but for the first time the state has determined who they are - children with special educational needs and disabilities, what is inclusive education. True, the concept of the correctional school itself has been lost in the law, and this is precisely the essence of the crisis. But for the first time, the law defines the rights and responsibilities of all participants in the educational process - parents, teachers and students. Perhaps all this is not spelled out clearly enough, it still needs to be worked on, but the main step has been taken.
Positive trends
It is worth recognizing that in 25 years the state has changed its attitude to the problem, and now any official knows everything about the rights of people with disabilities, about creating an accessible environment for all categories of citizens. They know how this problem is being solved abroad, how it should be solved here.
Just the other day, we discussed a draft law prepared by State Duma deputy Oleg Smolin, this document is designed to protect the rights of correctional institutions. It enshrined the parent's right to choose an educational institution. The state must ensure the development of correctional schools, inclusive education, schools of the combined type, in which various categories of children study. But the parent has every right to choose from this list what is closer to him. In addition, it is proposed to legislate the following requirement: a correctional institution can be closed or redesigned only if this decision is supported by 75% of the parents whose children attend it. Because now such decisions are made on the basis of the decisions of certain “initiative groups”, which do not necessarily represent the interests of all parents.
Not only love
I talked to parents who are ardent supporters of inclusion. In their opinion, a correctional school is a cage, a prison, where children are given little that is useful, where there are bad teachers who do not teach anything, but in a general education school, ideally, all students are surrounded by love and care, where they develop harmoniously and fully, interacting with ordinary children. I say to such parents that if they really managed to find such a school, then this is very good. But not every region can provide this pleasure. And it is hardly worth abandoning an institution where there are professional defectologists in favor of schools where ordinary teachers work. Love alone is not enough to give children a full-fledged education and upbringing, taking into account the peculiarities of their health. Hippotherapy, Montessori acorns, origami, music, games, etc. - this is wonderful, but will a hearing-impaired child from all this become better to hear, and a blind child to see? You ask: can a mentally retarded child get an education in a regular school, and not a correctional school. Yes, maybe, but what will we get as a result? While the children in the class are being told about Cervantes, about plots, associations, alliterations, etc., this child will sit and paint a picture of a windmill. What's next? Previously, this child, having finished the 8th grade, knew how to hold a file, how to work with a chisel, and could go to the factory and earn a living. And now, at best, he knows the name of Don Quixote's horse, but how much good does it do him?
I don't mind if they sit side by side and study together. But are the conditions created for this in general education schools today? Are there workshops in which “special” guys could realize themselves in what is available to them?
In a single space
The way out is the creation of institutions of a combined type, in which both children with disabilities and ordinary children, both from complete families and orphans, can study. They may have different diagnoses, educational perspectives, but they should all be in the same educational environment, because then they will still have to live together, and it is better to teach them this coexistence right away. But there is no need to try to bring everyone to some single level, so that all of them - both sick and healthy - meet the same standards. That doesn't happen. We need different standards, different approaches.
We discuss all the time: should different children study in the same class or should they be separated into different classes or even schools. In my opinion, the main question is different: in what case can we guarantee the maximum development of the child - if we create special conditions for him in a special school or if we place him in the same class with everyone else.
Together but apart
There are categories of children who do not have mental defects, but, roughly speaking, go by themselves. The question arises: in which school and in which class will he feel most comfortable? And how comfortable will others feel – classmates and teachers? Again, who will look after him? The same one who teaches, or a dedicated employee? All this again rests on money, on the ability to provide a full-fledged educational process. A lot depends on how exactly the educational space within this school will be organized so that one does not interfere with the other and that everyone is provided with an individual approach depending on their characteristics. For example, I like the model of the school, in which special children are separated into separate classes, where specialists work with them, but during breaks and extracurricular school-wide events they are all together, communicate with each other, participate in various joint activities. Under one roof, you can combine different systems, classes, approaches. But we are again being told that all this is wrong, that these are again barriers, but in fact salvation is precisely in homogeneous classes, where everyone is together and everyone is equal!
So what kind of program are we implementing? In the opinion of some British comrades, the school should generally be made into an interest club, reducing the compulsory educational program to a minimum. Let the kids do what they love!
Is that what we're aiming for?
Generalist teacher
There is an opinion that in conditions when the health of the younger generation is deteriorating from year to year, when more and more children are born with developmental anomalies, all, without exception, teachers should improve their qualifications in order to be able to work with different categories of children. And ideally, to train each teacher as a defectologist. But they are different things! There is a teacher of a general education school, and there is a teacher-defectologist, these are different specialists. At the same time, of course, every teacher must know the basics of defectology, this is quite logical. We all need to understand that in our practice there may well be a child with special educational needs. And this, by the way, is a rather broad concept - this includes children of migrants who do not speak Russian, and children of risk groups - drug addicts, hooligans, vagrants, and children with disabilities.
So, every teacher should understand the degree of complexity of the problem. And do not try to correct in two weeks what cannot be corrected throughout life, even if such results are required of him. The teacher must soberly assess his abilities, know how to work with different children, what manuals to use, what needs to be done and what should not be done in any case, and also imagine which specialist should be contacted for help if there is not enough qualification .
Incompatible concepts
When our politicians and officials fought for the rights of children, for some reason they did not take into account many things. For example, the idea of per capita funding contradicts the idea of inclusion, because it is impossible to recruit as many children as possible into the class, while at the same time creating comfortable conditions for children with disabilities, especially since the class size is much smaller in correctional schools. For some reason, they completely lost sight of the fact that if children with special needs appear in the class, then they need not only special programs and textbooks, but also special didactic materials, equipment, furniture, in addition, the teacher will have to write a separate lesson plan.
Officials are unaware that even if we are talking about such a seemingly understandable phenomenon as “hearing impairment”, it is necessary to distinguish between children who are completely deaf, hard of hearing, late deaf and children with acoustic implants. All of them represent different categories of students, it is necessary to work with each of them in different ways, and to draw up their own program for each. And this is a colossal burden on the teacher, not to mention the fact that he must have fantastic qualifications. But it's easier to blame everything on the performer - the teacher, instead of thinking from the very beginning how to actually solve the problem.
A question of quality
Today, schools famously report that they are ready to switch to inclusion, because a ramp has already been added to the building, and all teachers have completed two-week courses. But we all know perfectly well that this is a fiction. Years are needed to competently build a system of training and retraining of teachers. And this can be done only on the condition that the training will be carried out by those organizations that have qualified specialists. Now, unfortunately, this is trusted almost by bath and laundry plants. But even if there is some titled professor in the organization, it is unlikely that his lectures will be of much use if he comes to the region and tries to tell everything about everything in three hours. Moreover, ordinary teachers, as a rule, are not at all concerned about what wonderful schools there are in Great Britain and Iceland, but what to do with a student who, at the beginning of the lesson, crawls under the desk and cannot be pulled out of there. But professors rarely answer such questions.
Therefore, before declaring that now every school in our country must ensure the right of citizens to receive education, including inclusive education, it would be necessary to prepare teachers, and not formally, but very carefully. It is impossible to appoint teachers by order of Mother Teresa. Many teachers do not know how, and many simply do not want to work with special categories of children, and you can hardly blame them for this, because when they studied at the university, they had completely different ideas about this process, as well as about who should do what. study. The rights of children and parents should not be confused with the qualifications of a teacher.
Norm of life
I repeat, most children from special schools can attend mainstream schools. But the main thing in the process of education is not at all smiles, not a good attitude towards each other, not the atmosphere in the classroom, but the knowledge and skills that the child must acquire and which will help him become independent after graduation.
Within the walls of our institute, teaching methods have been developed and tested for many years. And now it is worth asking - do our teachers own what has been accumulated over the long decades of work of our scientists? But this is already a question for Rosobrnadzor, which should ensure effective training of teachers for the transition to inclusion.
As early as 1949, the position of a psychologist was introduced in the schools of Denmark, which I have repeatedly mentioned. And we still can not understand why this specialist is needed. With us, he simply states that the child has such and such an IQ, that he has such and such a level of anxiety, etc. But what's next? What should parents and teachers do about this? But in Danish schools, psychologists for more than 60 years have been building relationships within the team, between teachers, children and parents, doing everything so that political correctness from something imposed from above becomes a part and norm of life. And already in the early 50s in this country they came to the conclusion that it is absolutely necessary for every teacher to take a special course on working with a special category of students. And we are constantly changing the rules of the game, goals, conditions for achieving them, and therefore it is not clear who and how to train, and most importantly - for what.
The danger of "staining"
A classical defectologist in our country used to study for 5 years. Defectological education in its Soviet understanding included 4 blocks of knowledge - philological, medical, general pedagogical, pathopsychological. A competent specialist is obtained only if all these blocks are mastered. Now, in the conditions of the Bologna process, the terms have been reduced. So, we end up with something wrong. This is not even a paramedic, not even a nurse, and not even a craftsman.
There should be training of high-profile specialists, but professionalism does not mean that a person has been taught (and taught!) to love children for 5 years, but to give him a tool with which you can solve this or that problem. If you are trying to explain a topic, and a student tears up a notebook in response, love alone is not enough here, you need to know what should be done so that he changes his behavior, completes the task, solves the example. Because you, as a teacher, will be asked exactly this result.
We are actively participating in the Bologna process. But for some reason we forget that the University of Bologna was founded before Russia was baptized. We cannot automatically adopt the experience of other countries, because they have been doing this for centuries, and we, in turn, have centuries of our own experience. The University of Bologna is a state within a state. There, when students are on strike, the police do not dare to touch them. In the university state, the government is the community of professors. And we appoint university rectors. And we have a lot of schools in which the teacher is forced to interrupt the lesson in order to drive the cow. The desire to ensure equal rights for everyone and create a single educational space is certainly good, but so far we see that the country has been divided into a large number of different territorial educational systems, each of which has its own innovations, its own financial conditions, and its own salaries. Guided, sometimes, by good intentions, we are destroying the educational space, since the result, very often, depends on how well the relationship between the governor and the minister of education of the region is built in a particular subject of the Russian Federation.
Conscious choice
Basic teacher training should begin with pre-university attestation. If a person decides to become a defectologist, to help people with disabilities, he must first work as a volunteer for six months or a year in a special school, hospital, social security institution or family, just to understand whether he can do this professionally at all, is it his choice? Is he able to overcome disgust, hostility, accept this person with his problems? It can take a very long time to learn how to love a disabled child, but it is much more effective to just try to change his diaper.
In the future, as I have already said, every teacher, regardless of his specialty, needs to take a course in defectology in order to have an idea about working with special children.
In addition, it is necessary to strengthen the course of the psychology of communication, so that each teacher knows how to talk with children and parents, how to attract attention, what words should not be used, how to calm down, etc.
It is no secret that today many very good teachers simply do not want to work in an inclusive environment. And they can be understood, because if you are used to preparing the winners of the Olympiads and you are doing great at it, you are unlikely to be satisfied with the situation when you have to give primitive knowledge every day, which the child constantly forgets. Therefore, I am sure that such teachers should not be broken through the knee, let them do what they can do better than others.
If the parents themselves have understood or doctors and other specialists have established that the child has developmental features, you need to find a suitable educational institution as soon as possible. And the sooner you find the one that suits your child with his individual characteristics, the higher the chances of his rehabilitation, social adaptation, psychological correction and overcoming health-related difficulties.
Related materials:
Kindergarten plus elementary school
There are so-called elementary schools-kindergartens of a compensatory type, where kids with developmental disabilities are at first simply in the garden and socially adapt in the company of other kids, and then staying in the kindergarten smoothly moves on to primary school. Then, depending on how the child copes with the program, he goes to the 1st or immediately to the 2nd grade of a correctional school.
Features in development are too different
There are so many features in development and they are so dissimilar that "special children" sometimes do not fit into the "stencil" of a particular diagnosis. And the main problem of their education lies precisely in the fact that all the children are completely different and dissimilar, and each with their own oddities and health problems. And yet, experts have established the main developmental problems or diagnoses, which are indicated by such abbreviations:
cerebral palsy - cerebral palsy;
ZPR - mental retardation;
ZRR - delayed speech development;
MMD - minimal brain dysfunction;
ODA - musculoskeletal system;
ONR - general underdevelopment of speech;
RDA - early childhood autism;
ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder;
HIA - limited health opportunities.
As you can see, from all of the above, only cerebral palsy, MMD and problems with the musculoskeletal system are specific medical diagnoses. Otherwise, the names of children's features, oddities and problems are very, very conditional. What does "general underdevelopment of speech" mean? And how is it different from “speech delay”? And this is a "delay" relative to what - relative to what age and level of intelligence? As for “early childhood autism”, this diagnosis is made for children so dissimilar in behavioral manifestations that it seems that our domestic experts themselves do not agree on autism, since they have not yet studied this disease well enough. And today, almost every second restless child is given the “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder”! Therefore, before agreeing that this or that diagnosis will be attributed to your child, show it to not one, but at least a dozen specialists and get clear arguments and clear medical indications from them, according to which the child will be assigned a diagnosis. Such a diagnosis as blindness or deafness is obvious. But when a playful child, who gives caregivers and teachers more trouble than other children, is in a hurry to assign a “diagnosis”, just to get rid of him by transferring him to a kindergarten or school for “children with special needs”, then you can fight for your child . After all, a label pasted since childhood can thoroughly spoil a child's life.
Special (correctional) schoolsI, II, III, IV, V, VI, VIIandVIIItypes. What kind of children do they teach?
In special (correctional) general educational schools of the 1st type Hearing-impaired, hearing-impaired and deaf children are taught. AT schools II type deaf children learn. Type III-IV schools Designed for blind and visually impaired children. SchoolsVkind accept students with speech disorders, in particular stuttering children. Type VI schools created for children with problems in physical and mental development. Sometimes such schools function at neurological and psychiatric hospitals. Their main contingent is children with various forms of cerebral palsy (ICP), spinal and craniocerebral injuries. Type VII schools for children with ADHD and mental retardation. Type VII schools dealing with dyslexia in children. Alexia is the absence of speech and a complete inability to master speech, and dyslexia is a partial specific disorder of mastering reading, caused by a violation of higher mental functions. And, finally, in special (correctional) general educational schools of the VIII type educate mentally retarded children, the main goal of these educational institutions is to teach children to read, count and write and navigate in social conditions. At schools of the VIII type there are carpentry, locksmith, sewing or bookbinding workshops, where students within the walls of the school receive a profession that allows them to earn a living. The path to higher education is closed to them; after graduation, they receive only a certificate stating that they have attended the ten-year program.
Correctional school: strive for it or avoid it?
This difficult question is up to you. As we know, cerebral palsy also has such different and dissimilar forms - from deep mental retardation, in which doctors pass a verdict: "untrainable" - to completely intact intelligence. A child with cerebral palsy may suffer from a musculoskeletal system and at the same time have a completely bright and smart head!
Considering all the individual characteristics of the child, before choosing a school for him, consult a hundred times with doctors, speech pathologists, speech therapists, psychiatrists and parents of special children who have more experience due to the fact that their children are older.
For example, is it necessary for a child with severe stuttering to be in an environment like him? Will such an environment do him any good? Wouldn't it be better to follow the path of inclusive education, when children with diagnoses are immersed in an environment of healthy peers? Indeed, in one case, a correctional school can help, and in another ... harm. After all, each case is so individual! Remember the first shots of Tarkovsky's film "Mirror". "I can speak!" - the teenager says after a hypnosis session, forever freeing himself from a strong stutter that has oppressed him for many years. A brilliant director thus shows us: miracles happen in life. And the one whom teachers and doctors put an end to, sometimes can surprise the world with an outstanding talent, or at least become a socially adapted member of society. Not special, but an ordinary person.
Visit the school in person!
Doctors will be the first judge of your child's abilities. They will send him to the psychological-medical-pedagogical commission (PMPC). Consult with the members of the commission, which school in your district is best for your child, will allow him to reveal his abilities, correct his problems and shortcomings. Contact the district resource center for the development of inclusive education: maybe they will help with advice? To get started, call the schools available in your district. Chat on the forums with parents of children who are already studying. Are they satisfied with the education and the attitude of the teachers? And it is better, of course, to personally get acquainted with the director of the school, teachers and, of course, with future classmates! You must know what environment your child will be in. You can go to the websites of schools, but there you will receive only a minimum of formal information: on the Internet you can depict a beautiful picture, but will it correspond to reality? A true picture of the school will give only her visit. Having crossed the threshold of the building, you will immediately understand whether there is cleanliness, order, discipline, and most importantly, the reverent attitude of teachers towards special children. All this you will feel right at the entrance!
Home education - as an option
Doctors offer home-based education for some children. But again, this option is not suitable for everyone. Some psychologists are generally categorically against home education, because for children with special needs there is nothing worse than isolation from society. And home-based learning is isolation from peers. Whereas communication with them can have a beneficial effect on the mental and emotional development of the child. Even in ordinary schools, teachers talk about the great strength of the team!
Please note that there are several schools, for example, of the VIII type in each district, and there is even a choice, but not every district has schools for blind or deaf children. Well, you will have to travel far, drive or ... rent an apartment where there is a school your child needs. Many non-residents come to Moscow solely for the sake of educating and rehabilitating their special children, because in the provinces, by and large, there is simply no correctional education. So, visitors do not care in which district to rent housing, so first they find a school suitable for the child, and then they already rent an apartment nearby. Maybe you should do the same for your own child?
According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, everyone is equal
Know that according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the law on education, everyone has the right to education, regardless of the diagnosis. The state guarantees the general availability and free of charge of preschool, basic general and secondary vocational education (Articles 7 and 43 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). The provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation are explained in the Federal Law of July 10, 1992 No. 3266-1 "On Education", in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 2 of which one of the principles of state policy in the field of education is general accessibility of education , as well as adaptability of the education system to the levels and characteristics of the development and training of students .
So, in order to enroll a child in the first grade, you must submit to a general education institution an application for admission, a birth certificate, a medical card in the form 0-26 / U-2000, approved by order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation dated 03.07.2000 No. 241, a certificate of registration child (form No. 9). Parents have the right not to report the diagnosis of the child when they are admitted to an educational institution (Article 8 Law of the Russian Federation of 07/02/1992 N 3185-1 (as amended on 07/03/2016) "On psychiatric care and guarantees of the rights of citizens in its provision" (with amended and supplemented, effective from 01/01/2017), and the school administration has no right to receive this information from anyone other than the parent (legal representative) of the child.
And if you think that the rights of your child are being infringed upon by attributing a false diagnosis to him (after all, objectionable people were hidden in psychiatric clinics at all times), feel free to join the fight! The law is on your side. Remember, there is no one but you to protect the rights of your child.
Special education school system
During the twentieth century. a system of special (correctional educational institutions) was formed, which are mainly boarding schools and in which the vast majority of school-age children with special educational needs studied and are studying in the USSR and Russia.
Currently, there are eight main types of special schools for children with various developmental disabilities. The activities of such institutions are regulated by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of March 12, 1997 No. Z 288 "06 approval of the Model Regulations on special
(correctional) educational institution for students,
pupils with developmental disabilities", as well as a letter from the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation "On the specifics of the activities of special (correctional) educational institutions of types I - VIII".
In accordance with these documents, special educational standards are implemented in all special (correctional) educational institutions.
An educational institution independently, on the basis of a special educational standard, develops and implements a curriculum and educational programs, based on the characteristics of the psychophysical development and individual capabilities of children. A special (correctional) educational institution may be established by federal executive authorities (Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation), executive authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation (department, committee, Ministry) of Education of the region, territory, republic) and local (municipal) self-government bodies. a special (correctional) educational institution may be non-state.
In recent years, special educational institutions have been created for other categories of children with disabilities in health and life: with autistic personality traits, with Down syndrome. There are also sanatorium (forest) schools for chronically ill and weakened children.
Special (correctional) educational institutions are financed by the respective founder.
Each such educational institution is responsible for the life of the pupil and ensuring his constitutional right to receive free education within the limits of a special educational standard. All children are provided with conditions for education, upbringing, treatment, social adaptation and integration into society.
Graduates of special (correctional) educational institutions (with the exception of the VIII type school) receive a qualified education (that is, corresponding to the levels of education of a mass general education school: for example, basic general education, general secondary education). They are issued a state document confirming the level of education received or a certificate of graduation from a special (correctional) educational institution.
Education authorities send a child to a special school only with the consent of the parents and upon conclusion
(recommendations) of the psychological-medical-pedagogical commission. Also
with the consent of the parents and on the basis of the conclusion of the PMPK, the child
can be transferred inside a special school to a class for children
with mental retardation only after the first year of study in it.
In a special school, a class (or group) can be created for children with a complex defect structure as such children are identified in the course of psychological, medical and pedagogical observation in the conditions of the educational process.
In addition, in a special school of any kind, classes may be opened for children with severe intellectual disabilities and other accompanying disabilities. The decision to open such a class is made by the pedagogical council of a special school, provided that the necessary conditions and specially trained personnel are available. The main tasks of such classes are to provide elementary primary education, create the most favorable conditions for the development of the child's personality, for him to receive pre-professional or elementary labor and social training, taking into account his individual capabilities.
A student of a special school may be transferred to study in a regular general education school by the education authorities with the consent of the parents (or persons replacing them) and on the basis of the conclusion of the PMPK, as well as if the general education school has the necessary conditions for integrated education.
In addition to education, the special school provides medical and psychological support to children with disabilities, for which the staff of the special school has appropriate specialists. They work in close cooperation with the teaching staff, carrying out diagnostic activities, psycho-correctional and psychotherapeutic measures, maintaining a protective regime in a special school, participating in vocational counseling. If necessary, children receive medical and physiotherapy treatment, massage, hardening procedures, attend physiotherapy exercises.
The process of social adaptation, social integration helps to implement a social teacher. Its role especially increases at the stage of choosing a profession, graduation by graduates from school and transition to the post-school period.
Each special school pays considerable attention to labor. Pre-professional training of their students. The content and forms of training depend on local characteristics: territorial, ethno-national and cultural, on the needs of the local labor market, the abilities of pupils, their interests. A purely individual labor profile is chosen, which includes preparation for individual labor activity.
Special school of the 1st type, where deaf children study, conducts the educational process in accordance with the level of general educational programs of three levels of general education:
(within 5-6 years or years - in the case of studying in the preparatory class);
2nd stage - basic general education (during 5-6
years);
3rd stage - complete secondary general education (2 years, as a rule, in the structure of an evening school).
For children who have not received full pre-school training, a preparatory class is organized. Children from the age of 7 are admitted to the first grade.
All educational activities are permeated with work on the formation and development of verbal oral and written speech, communication, the ability to perceive and understand the speech of others on an auditory-visual basis. Children learn to use the remnants of hearing to perceive speech by ear and auditory-visual with the use of sound amplifying equipment.
To this end, group and individual classes are regularly held to develop auditory perception and the formation of the pronunciation side of oral speech.
In schools operating on a bilingual basis, equal teaching of verbal language and sign language is carried out, but the educational process is conducted in sign language.
As part of a special school of the 1st type, classes are organized for deaf children with a complex defect structure (mental retardation, learning difficulties, visually impaired, etc.).
The number of children in a class (group) is no more than 6 people, in classes for children with a complex defect structure up to 5 people.
Special school II type, where hearing-impaired (having partial hearing loss and varying degrees of speech underdevelopment) and late deaf children (deaf at preschool or school age, but retaining independent speech) study, has two departments:
first branch- for children with mild speech underdevelopment associated with hearing impairment;
second branch- for children with profound underdevelopment of speech, the cause of which is hearing loss.
If in the process of learning it becomes necessary to transfer a child from one department to another, it is difficult for a child in the first department or, conversely, a child in the second department reaches such a level of general and speech development that allows him to study in the first department), then with the consent of the parents and on the recommendation PMPK is undergoing such a transition.
Children who have reached the age of seven are admitted to the first grade in any of the departments if they attended kindergarten. For children who, for whatever reason, do not have appropriate pre-school education, a preparatory class is organized in the second department.
The occupancy of the class (group) in the first department is up to 10 people, in the second department up to 8 people.
In a special school of type II, the educational process is carried out in accordance with the levels of general educational programs of three levels of general education:
1st stage - primary general education (in the first department 4-5 years, in the second department 5-6 or 6-7 years);
2nd stage - basic general education (6 years in the first and second departments);
3rd stage - secondary (complete) general education (2 years in the first and second departments).
The development of auditory and auditory perception, the formation and correction of the pronunciation side of speech are carried out in specially organized individual and group classes using sound-amplifying equipment for collective use and individual hearing aids.
The development of auditory perception and automation of pronunciation skills continue in phonetic rhythm classes and in various activities related to music.
Special schools III and IV types are intended for the education of blind (III type), visually impaired and late-blind (IV type) children. Due to the small number of such schools, if necessary, joint (in one institution) education of blind and visually impaired children, as well as children with strabismus and amblyopia, can be organized.
Blind children, as well as children with residual vision (0.04 and below) and higher visual acuity (0.08) in the presence of complex combinations of visual impairments, with progressive eye diseases leading to blindness, are admitted to a special school of type III.
In the first class of a special school of the III type, children are accepted 6-7 years old, and sometimes 8-9 years old. Class (group) capacity can be up to 8 people. The total period of study in a type III school is 12 years, during which students receive a secondary (complete) general education.
Visually impaired children with visual acuity from 0.05 to 0.4 in the better seeing eye with a tolerable correction are admitted to a special school of type IV. This takes into account the state of other visual functions (field of view, near visual acuity), the form and course of the pathological process. Children with higher visual acuity can also be admitted to this school with progressive or often recurrent eye diseases, in the presence of asthenic phenomena that occur when reading and writing at close range.
Children with strabismus and amblyopia with higher visual acuity (over 0.4) are admitted to the same school.
Children 6-7 years old are admitted to the first grade of the IV type school. There can be up to 12 people in a class (group). For 12 years of schooling, children receive a secondary (complete) general education.
Type V Special School is intended for the education of children with severe speech disorders and may include one or two departments.
The first department trains children with severe general underdevelopment of speech (alalia, dysarthria, rhinolalia, aphasia), as well as children with general underdevelopment of speech, accompanied by stuttering.
In the second department, children with a severe form of stuttering with normally developed speech study.
Within the first and second departments, taking into account the level of speech development of children, classes (groups) can be created, including pupils with homogeneous speech disorders.
If the speech disorder is eliminated, the child can, on the basis of the conclusion of the PMPK and with the consent of the parents, go to a regular school.
Children 7-9 years old are admitted to the first class, 6-7 years old to the preparatory class. For 10-11 years of schooling, a child can receive a basic general education.
Special speech therapy and pedagogical assistance is provided to the child in the process of education and upbringing, in all lessons and in extracurricular time. The school has a special speech mode.
A special school of the VI type is intended for the education of children with disorders of the musculoskeletal system (motor disorders that have different causes and varying degrees of severity, cerebral palsy, congenital and acquired deformities of the musculoskeletal system, flaccid paralysis of the upper and lower extremities, paresis and paraparesis of the lower and upper limbs).
Type VI school carries out the educational process in accordance with the levels of general educational programs of three levels of general education:
1st stage - primary general education (4-5
years);
2nd stage - basic general education (6 years);
3rd stage - secondary (complete) general education (2 years).
Children from the age of 7 are admitted to the first class (group), however, admission of children and older than this age by 1-2 years is allowed. For children who have not attended kindergarten, a preparatory class is open.
The number of children in a class (group) is not more than 10 people.
A special motor mode has been established in the VI type school.
Education is carried out in unity with complex correctional work, covering the motor sphere of the child, his speech and cognitive activity in general.
Type VII Special School designed for children with persistent learning difficulties, mental retardation (MPD).
The educational process in this school is carried out in accordance with the levels of general educational programs of two levels of general education:
1st stage - primary general education (3-5
years)
2nd stage - basic general education (5
years).
Children are accepted to the VII type school only in the preparatory, first and second grades, in the third grade - as an exception. Those who started studying in a regular school from the age of 7 are admitted to the second grade of a VII type school, and those who started studying in a regular educational institution from the age of 6 can be admitted to the first grade of a VII type school.
Children who have not had any pre-school training may be admitted at the age of 7 to the first grade of a school of type VII, and at the age of 6 to a preparatory class.
The number of children in a class (group) is not more than 12 people.
Students in a type VII school retain the opportunity to move to a regular school as deviations are corrected, in development, gaps in knowledge are eliminated after receiving primary general education.
If it is necessary to clarify the diagnosis, the child can study at a school of type VII during the year.
Children receive special pedagogical assistance in individual and group correctional classes, as well as in speech therapy classes.
Type VIII Special School provides special education for children with intellectual underdevelopment. Education in this school is not qualified, having a qualitatively different content. The main attention is paid to social adaptation and vocational training when students master the volume of educational content available to them in general subjects.
Studying at the school of the VIII type ends with an exam in labor training. Schoolchildren may be exempted from the exam (attestation) for health reasons. The release procedure is determined by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.
A child can be admitted to a school of the VIII type in the first or preparatory class at the age of 7-8 years. The preparatory class allows not only to better prepare the child for school, but also makes it possible to clarify the diagnosis during the educational process and the psychological and pedagogical study of the child's capabilities.
The number of students in the preparatory class does not exceed 6-8 people, and in other classes - no more than 12.
The terms of study at a school of the VIII type can be 8 years, 9 years, 9 years with a vocational training class, 10 years with a vocational training class. These terms of study can be extended by 1 year by opening a preparatory class.
If the school has the necessary material base, then classes (groups) with in-depth labor training can be opened in it.
Students who have completed the eighth (ninth) grade pass to such classes. Those who have completed the class with in-depth labor training and successfully passed the qualification exam receive a document on the assignment of the corresponding qualification rank.
Classes for children with severe mental retardation can be created and function in schools of type VIII. The number of children in such a class should not exceed 5-6
human.
Children can be sent to a preparatory (diagnostic) class. During the school year, the preliminary diagnosis is specified, and depending on this, the next year the child can either be sent to a class for children with severe forms of intellectual disability, or to a regular class of a VIII type school.
Children under the age of 12 can be sent to such classes, their stay in the school system until the age of 18. Expulsion from the school takes place in accordance with the PMPK Recommendations and in agreement with the parents.
Children with psychopathic behavior, epilepsy and other mental illnesses requiring active treatment are not accepted into such classes. These children may attend advisory groups with their parents.
The mode of operation of the class (group) is established by agreement with the parents. The learning process is carried out in the mode of passing by each pupil of an individual educational route, determined by specialists in accordance with the psychophysical capabilities of a particular child.
For orphans and children left without parental care and having special educational needs, special orphanages and boarding schools are created in accordance with the profile of developmental disorders. Mostly these are orphanages and boarding schools for children and adolescents with intellectual underdevelopment and learning difficulties.
If a child is not able to attend a special (correctional) educational institution, he or she is educated at home. The organization of such training is determined by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation "On approval of the procedure for the upbringing and education of disabled children at home and in non-state educational institutions" of July 18, 1996. 3861.
Recently, home-based schools have been established., whose staff, consisting of qualified speech pathologists, psychologists, works with children both at home and in the conditions of partial stay of such children in a home-school. In the conditions of group work, interaction and communication with other children, the child masters social skills, gets used to learning in a group, team.
The right to study at home is given to children whose diseases or developmental disabilities correspond to those specified in the special list established by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. The basis for the organization of home training is the medical report of the medical institution.
A nearby school or pre-school educational institution is involved in helping children learn at home. For the period of study, the child is given the opportunity to use textbooks and the school library fund free of charge. Teachers and psychologists of the school provide advisory and methodological assistance to parents in the development of the child's general education programs. The school provides intermediate and final certification of the child and issues a document on the appropriate level of education. Accepted for certification
participation and teachers-defectologists, attracted additionally
for corrective action.
If a child with special educational needs is homeschooled, the educational authorities will reimburse parents for the cost of education in accordance with state and local regulations for funding the child's education in the appropriate type and type of educational institution.
For the education, upbringing and social adaptation of children and adolescents with complex, severe developmental disabilities, with concomitant diseases, as well as for providing them with comprehensive assistance rehabilitation centers of various profiles are being created.
These may be centers: psychological-medical-pedagogical rehabilitation and correction; social and labor adaptation and career guidance; psychological, pedagogical and social assistance; social assistance to families and children left without parental care, etc. The task of such centers is to provide correctional and pedagogical, psychological and career guidance, as well as the formation of self-service and communication skills, social interaction, work skills in children with severe and multiple disabilities. A number of centers conduct special educational activities. Classes in rehabilitation centers are based on programs of individual or group education and training. Often, the centers provide consultative, diagnostic and methodological assistance to parents of children with special educational needs, including informational and legal support. Rehabilitation centers also provide social and psychological assistance to former pupils of educational institutions for orphans and children left without parental care.
Rehabilitation centers help educational institutions for mass purposes if children with special educational needs are trained and brought up there: they conduct correctional and pedagogical work and counseling.
To provide speech therapy for children of preschool and school age, who have deviations in the development of speech and who study in educational institutions of general purpose, there is a speech therapy service. This may be the introduction of the position of a speech therapist in the staff of an educational institution, the creation of a speech therapy room in the structure of the education management body, or the creation of a speech therapy center. The speech therapy center at a general educational institution has become the most widespread form. The main objectives of its activities are: correction of violations of oral and written speech; timely prevention of academic failure caused by speech disorders; dissemination of basic speech therapy knowledge among teachers and parents.
