Age features of younger schoolchildren with mental retardation. Features of the behavior of younger schoolchildren with mental retardation. Having realistically assessed the abilities and capabilities of the child, think over with specialists an algorithm for the further development of the child and the correction of "failures"

One of the topical areas of psychological and pedagogical research at present is the study of attention in younger schoolchildren with disabilities. It is attention that is one of the important indicators in assessing mental development in children of primary school age when they enter school, and especially in children with mental retardation (MPD).

Scientists note that attention affects the efficiency of many cognitive processes: perception, memory, thinking. Therefore, their success in mastering the primary school educational program will depend on how attentive students with mental retardation are.

Attention as a mental phenomenon is studied by many scientists, primarily V.V. Bogoslovsky, L.S. Vygotsky, P.Ya. Galperin, A.A. Lyublinskaya, K.K. Platonov and others.

In the psychological and pedagogical literature, there are various interpretations of the concept under consideration. P.A. Rudik believes that the stability of attention is determined mainly by the predominance of dynamic stereotypes developed in the process of practice. They allow you to perform certain actions easily and naturally.

According to N.F. Dobrynin, attention, as a special kind of mental activity, is expressed in the choice and maintenance of certain processes of this activity.

According to another scientist, S.L. Rubinshtein, attention is a selective focus on a particular object and focus on it, deepening into the cognitive activity directed at the object.

P.Ya. Galperin in his research pays special attention to the fact that attention is an ideal, minimized and automated control action. According to this scientist, the considered mental phenomenon is the main function of control.

Among scientists there is no consensus on the definition of the concept of "attention". On the one hand, scientists consider this concept as an independent mental phenomenon, on the other hand, they believe that attention cannot be considered as an independent phenomenon, since it is part of any other mental process.

Attention has no final product and is not an independent form of mental activity. Attention is such a state of mental concentration, which allows you to focus on any object. Attention is an important cognitive mental process, without which any human activity is impossible and it is an independent mental process.

The main properties of attention include - stability, concentration, distribution, switching, distractibility and attention span.

The age-related features of attention in younger schoolchildren are the relative weakness of voluntary attention and its slight stability. It is quite difficult for younger students to focus their attention on monotonous and uninteresting activities. However, younger students to some extent can already independently plan their activities.

Younger students with mental retardation are characterized by poor intellectual development, limited ideas, inability to control their actions, and lack of interest in learning. Along with this, such students are characterized by involuntary attention, its weak concentration and concentration, and instability. Such students with mental retardation are more impulsive and distracted, often distracted in class than younger students with developmental norms.

Note that ZPR is called a slowdown in the normal rate of mental maturation in comparison with accepted age norms. This phenomenon is characterized not only by a slow pace of mental development, but also by disorders in the cognitive sphere, immaturity of the emotional-volitional sphere, as well as psycho-physiological and personal immaturity, and mild impairments in the development of the intellect.

Underdevelopment of attention in younger schoolchildren is noted for all types of mental retardation.

After analyzing the psychological and pedagogical literature on the topic under study, we can note the following features of the development of attention in younger students with mental retardation:

reduced concentration of attention;
instability of attention;
insufficient amount of attention;
reduced distribution and switching of attention.
Let's consider these properties of attention.

Concentration of attention is the ability to keep attention on a certain object for a certain amount of time. Concentration of attention is the main indicator of the severity of the degree and intensity of attention.

Since the concentration of attention is determined by the degree of depth of a person in a certain activity, the greatest concentration of attention is manifested when a person is carried away by an interesting activity, in which his capabilities and abilities are realized to the greatest extent. According to scientists, the concentration of attention is dynamic, as a result of which it either rises or falls depending on the nature of the activity and the attitude towards it.

Stability of attention is the ability to delay perception for a long time on certain objects of the surrounding reality. In students with mental retardation, attention is characterized by instability, increased distractibility, insufficient concentration on the object.

The instability of attention in younger students with mental retardation leads to a decrease in the level of productivity. This, in turn, causes difficulties in performing tasks that require constant monitoring. Significant difficulties in fixing attention in such students arise mainly when writing. So, when performing certain tasks in writing, younger students with mental retardation have spelling errors, the continuous spelling of individual words, and a violation of grammatical rules.

The ability to concentrate on several external objects at the same time is called attention span. The amount of attention is measured by the number of objects that must be perceived at the same time. The amount of attention depends on a certain activity of a person, his experience and mental development and increases.

In younger schoolchildren with somatogenic and psychogenic types of mental retardation, the amount of attention is significantly reduced compared to younger schoolchildren without developmental pathology.

The ability to choose the place of concentration of attention is called switching attention. Switching attention is manifested in the transition of the subject from one activity to another, from one object to another. It may be completed or incomplete. When the switch is completed, attention is completely fixed on a new object or activity. If the switchover is incomplete, it is still directed to the previous activity. This property of attention largely depends on the individual characteristics of a person's higher nervous activity, the balance and mobility of nervous processes, on the type of higher nervous activity, on the relationship between previous and subsequent activities, and the subject's attitude to each of them. For example, the more interest a certain activity causes for a younger student, the easier it is for him to switch to it.

Primary schoolchildren with mental retardation with a strong and mobile nervous system have a stable and easily distributed and switchable attention. In younger schoolchildren with mental retardation with an inert and weak nervous system, mainly unstable attention is noted.

The distribution of attention is understood as the ability to keep a certain number of objects in the center of attention at the same time. Allocation of attention is the ability to maintain a sufficient level of concentration for the amount of time that is appropriate for a particular activity.

It is the distribution of attention that provides an opportunity for a younger student with mental retardation to perform several actions at once, keeping them in the field of attention. In this regard, it should be noted that the distribution of attention largely depends on the practical experience of the younger student, his acquired knowledge, skills and practical skills, on his adaptation to school.

We conducted a study, the purpose of which was to study the properties of attention in younger schoolchildren with mental retardation.

The subject of our study is the properties of attention in younger schoolchildren with mental retardation.

A study to study the level of attention in junior schoolchildren with mental retardation was conducted on the basis of the MAOU "Secondary School No. 115" of the city of Chelyabinsk.

For the study, students of the second grade with mental retardation in the amount of 13 people were selected.

To study the level of development of the properties of attention in younger schoolchildren with mental retardation, we used the following methods:

1. "Find and cross out."

2. Methodology for studying the concentration and stability of attention (modification of the Pieron-Ruser method).

The results of the ascertaining experiment using the "Find and cross out" method are presented in Table 1.

Table 1

test subject			S (productivity/sustainability)

The results of the ascertaining experiment on the methodology for studying the concentration and stability of attention (a modification of the Pieron-Ruser method) are shown in Table 2.

table 2

test subject	Lead time	Percentage	Number of errors	Sustainability of attention
				High level
				Average level
				Very low level
				Very low level
				Low level
				Average level
				Low level
				Average level
				Average level
				High level
				Average level
				Average level
				Average level

Comparative results of studying the properties of attention in younger schoolchildren with mental retardation are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 - The results of studying the properties of attention in younger students with mental retardation

As can be seen from Figure 1, most of the tested younger schoolchildren with mental retardation have a sufficient level of attention development. So, in 53.8% of the subjects, the average level of attention development prevails and 15.4% - a high level.

In 15.4% of the tested junior schoolchildren with mental retardation, a low level of attention development is observed. Thus, 15.4% of the tested junior schoolchildren with mental retardation have a low level of attention development and 15.4% - a very low level.

We believe that a low level of attention development is insufficient for younger students with mental retardation and can adversely affect the development of cognitive and mental processes, their mastery of educational skills and the formation of their educational activities.

Therefore, the prospect of our further research will be the theoretical substantiation and experimental verification of the psychological and pedagogical correction of the low level of attention in younger schoolchildren with mental retardation.

The results of the study on the study of the properties of attention in younger schoolchildren with mental retardation allow us to formulate the following conclusions:

1. Attention is an important mental process on which the success of any type of activity in children of primary school age with mental retardation depends.

2. The main directions in the work of a teacher-psychologist on the psychological and pedagogical correction of a low level of attention in younger students with mental retardation may be the following: the development of concentration and stability of attention, increasing the amount of attention, developing the ability of younger students to distribute and switch attention.

3. Psychological and pedagogical correction of a low level of attention in younger students with mental retardation should be based on the individual and age characteristics of students and the type of mental retardation.

Since most of the mental functions (speech, spatial representations, thinking) have a complex structure and are based on the interaction of several functional systems, the creation of such interactions in children with mental retardation is not only slowed down, but also proceeds differently than in normally developing children. peers. Consequently, the corresponding mental functions are not formed in the same way as in normal development.

In younger students with mental retardation, there is:

Low degree of development of perception. This is manifested in the need for a longer period of time to receive and process sensory information; difficulties in recognizing objects in an unusual position, schematic and contour images; limited, fragmented knowledge of these children about the world around them.

Similar properties of objects are perceived by them in most cases as identical. Children of this category do not always recognize and often confuse similar letters and their individual elements, often misperceive combinations of letters, etc. According to some foreign psychologists, in particular G. Spionek, the lag in the development of visual perception is one of the reasons for those difficulties that these children face in the learning process.

At the initial stage of systematic education, the inferiority of subtle forms of auditory and visual perception, insufficiency of planning and implementation of complex motor programs are found in younger schoolchildren with mental retardation.

Spatial representations are insufficiently formed: orientation in the directions of space for a sufficiently long period of time is carried out at the level of practical actions; often there are difficulties in the synthesis and spatial analysis of the situation. Since the formation of spatial representations is closely related to the development of constructive thinking, the formation of representations of this type in younger students with mental retardation also has its own characteristics.

For example, during the folding of complex geometric shapes and patterns, children with mental retardation are often unable to carry out a full-fledged analysis of the form, establish symmetry, the identity of the parts of the constructed figures, place the structure on a plane, and combine it into one whole. But, unlike the mentally retarded, children with mental retardation usually perform simple patterns correctly.

Features of attention: instability, confusion, poor concentration, difficulty switching.

A decrease in the ability to distribute and focus attention is especially manifested in conditions when the task is performed in the presence of simultaneously acting speech stimuli, which have a great emotional and semantic content for children.

Insufficient organization of attention is associated with poor development of children's intellectual activity, imperfection of skills and abilities of self-control, insufficient development of a sense of responsibility and interest in learning. In children with mental retardation, there is a slowness and uneven development of attention stability, as well as a wide range of individual and age differences in this quality.

There are shortcomings in the analysis when performing tasks in conditions of increased speed of perception of the material, when the differentiation of such stimuli becomes difficult. The complication of working conditions leads to a significant slowdown in the execution of the task, but at the same time, the productivity of the activity decreases slightly.

The level of distribution of attention in younger schoolchildren with mental retardation rises abruptly in the third grade, in contrast to mentally retarded children, in whom it gradually increases with the transition to each subsequent grade. In children of this category, the development of attention switching occurs fairly evenly.

Correlative analysis reveals an insufficient relationship between switchability and other characteristics of attention in younger students with mental retardation, which in most cases manifests itself only in the first and third years of study.

Most researchers note that deficiencies in voluntary attention (exhaustion, poor ability to maintain its stability) characterize cognitive activity during mental retardation.

Instability of attention and a decrease in working capacity in younger schoolchildren with mental retardation have personal manifestations. Thus, for some children, high performance and maximum attentional stress decrease as work is done; for other children, the greatest concentration of attention is already after the partial performance of the activity, that is, they need additional time to be included in the activity; the third group of children is characterized by periodic fluctuations in attention and uneven performance during the entire period of the task.

Deviations in the development of memory. There is instability and a pronounced decrease in the productivity of memorization; the predominance of visual memory over verbal; inability to organize one's work, low level of self-control in the process of memorization and reproduction; poor ability to rationally use memorization techniques; small volume and accuracy of memorization; low level of mediated memorization; the predominance of mechanical memorization over verbal-logical; among the violations of short-term memory - increased inhibition of traces under the influence of interference and internal interference (the mutual influence of various mnemonic traces on each other); fast forgetting of material and low speed of memorization.

It is difficult for children of this category to master complex types of memory. Thus, before the fourth grade, most of the students with mental retardation memorize the material mechanically, while their normally developing peers during this period (first-fourth) grade use arbitrary indirect memorization.

The lag in the development of cognitive activity begins with early forms of thinking: visual-effective and visual-figurative. In younger schoolchildren, visual-effective thinking is the least disturbed, there is a lack of visual-figurative thinking.

Thus, during systematic learning, these children can safely group objects according to such visual features as shape and color, but with great difficulty distinguish the size and material of objects as common features, there are difficulties in abstracting one feature and meaningfully opposing it to others, in the transition from one principle of classification to another.

The children of this group have poorly developed analytical and synthetic activity in all types of thinking.

When analyzing a phenomenon or an object, children name non-existent or superficial qualities with insufficient accuracy and completeness. Subsequently, younger schoolchildren with mental retardation in the image emit almost two times fewer signs than their normally developing peers.

The process of generalization of generic concepts mainly depends on the amount of specific material with which the child works. Generic concepts in younger schoolchildren with mental retardation are poorly differentiated, diffuse in nature. These children, as a rule, can reproduce this or that concept only after the presentation of a large number of corresponding objects or their images, while normally developing children can complete this task after the presentation of one or two objects.

In particular, children experience great difficulties when it is necessary to include the same object in various systems of generalizations that reflect the diverse and difficult relationships between the phenomena of the surrounding reality. Even the principle of activity discovered during the solution of a specific task cannot always be transferred to new conditions. One of the reasons for such erroneous decisions may be the incorrect actualization of generic concepts.

During the classification operation, the main difficulty for children is that they cannot mentally combine two or more features of a phenomenon or object. However, this activity can be quite successful if it is possible to practice with objects of classification.

At the beginning of school education in children with mental retardation, as a rule, the main mental operations are not sufficiently formed at the verbal-logical level. For children in this group, it is difficult to reach a logical conclusion from the two proposed premises. They do not have a hierarchy of concepts. Grouping tasks are performed by children at the level of figurative thinking, and not concrete conceptual, as it should be at a given age.

However, verbally formulated tasks, which relate to situations based on the everyday experience of children, they solve at a higher level than simple tasks, which are based on visual material that children have not encountered before. For these children, tasks based on analogy are more accessible, in solving which it is possible to rely on a model, on their everyday experience. However, when solving such tasks, children make many mistakes due to insufficiently formed samples and their inadequate reproduction.

A large number of researchers note that in constructing logical judgments by analogy, children with mental retardation are closer to adequately developing children, and in terms of the ability to prove the truth of judgments and draw conclusions from premises, they are closer to the mentally retarded. For younger students with mental retardation, inertia of thinking is characteristic, which manifests itself in various forms.

For example, when teaching children, inert, inactive associations are created that cannot be changed. When moving from one system of skills and knowledge to another, students can apply proven methods without changing them, which ultimately leads to the difficulty of switching from one method of action to another.

Inertia manifests itself especially clearly when working with problematic tasks, the solution of which requires an independent search. Instead of understanding the task, finding an adequate way to solve it, in most cases, students reproduce the most familiar methods, thus a kind of task substitution is carried out and the ability to self-regulate does not develop, the motivation to avoid failures is not formed.

Another feature of the thinking of children with mental retardation is a decrease in cognitive activity. Some children almost do not ask questions about the phenomena of the surrounding reality and objects. These are passive, slow children with slow speech. Other children ask questions, mainly related to the external properties of the surrounding objects. Usually they are wordy, somewhat disinhibited.

An insufficient level of cognitive activity during learning also manifests itself in the fact that children in this category use the time allotted to complete the task inefficiently, make few assumptions before solving the problem.

In the process of memorization, a decrease in cognitive activity is manifested in the lack of effective use of time, which is intended for initial orientation in the task, in the need for constant motivation to remember, in the inability to use techniques and methods that can facilitate memorization, in a reduced level of self-control.

Insufficient cognitive activity is especially evident in relation to phenomena and objects that are outside the range defined by an adult. This is confirmed by the incompleteness and superficiality of knowledge about the objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality, which children acquire mainly from the media, books, and communication with adults.

The activities of younger schoolchildren with mental retardation are characterized by general disorganization, lack of unity of purpose, weak speech regulation, and impulsiveness; insufficient activity in all types of activity, especially spontaneous.

Having started work, children most often show indecision, ask questions that have already been voiced by the teacher or described in the textbook; sometimes they cannot understand the wording of the problem on their own.

Children experience serious difficulties when performing tasks with several instructions: as a rule, they do not grasp the meaning of the task as a whole, violate the sequence in work, and have difficulty switching from one method to another. Children do not follow some instructions at all, and the presence of neighboring instructions may interfere with the correct execution of others. But the same instructions, presented separately, usually do not cause difficulties.

The educational activity of schoolchildren with mental retardation is characterized by the fact that the same student, when performing a task, can act both correctly and incorrectly. The combination of the correct performance of a task with an erroneous one may indicate that schoolchildren temporarily lose their instructions due to the complication of working conditions.

The insufficiency of the regulatory function of speech is manifested in the difficulties of children in the verbal designation of the actions performed, in the performance of tasks proposed by the speech instruction. In oral reports of children on the work done, they, as a rule, do not clearly indicate the sequence of actions performed, and at the same time often give a description of minor, minor points.

The children of this group violated the necessary step-by-step control over the performed activity, they often do not notice the inconsistency of their work with the proposed model, they do not find the mistakes they made, even if the manager asks them to check their work. Schoolchildren are rarely able to adequately evaluate their work and correctly motivate the assessment, which in most cases is too high.

When asked to explain why they evaluate their work in this way, the children respond thoughtlessly, do not realize and do not establish the connection between an unsuccessful result from an erroneously chosen method of activity, or incorrectly performed actions.

In younger schoolchildren with mental retardation, in most cases, there is a weakening of regulation at all levels of activity. Even if the child “accepted” the task, difficulties may arise in solving it, since its conditions as a whole are not analyzed, probable solutions are not outlined, the results obtained are not controlled, and the mistakes made by the child are not corrected.

Children with mental retardation experience difficulties when they need to concentrate in order to find a solution to a problem, which is also associated with a weak development of the emotional-volitional sphere. Because of this, they often have fluctuations in the level of activity and performance, a change in “non-working” and “working” states.

During the lesson, they can work no more than 12-15 minutes, and then fatigue sets in, attention and activity are significantly reduced, rash, impulsive actions occur, many corrections and errors appear in the work; there are frequent outbursts of irritation and even refusal to work in response to the instructions of the teacher.

So, educational and cognitive activity for schoolchildren with mental retardation is unattractive, there is a rapid satiety when performing tasks. Motivation and emotions correspond to a younger age. Self-esteem is poorly differentiated. But, at the same time, there are no significant violations of mental processes.

The delay is largely associated with the emotional-volitional sphere of the personality, leads to the insufficiency of arbitrary regulation of thinking, concentration, and memorization. With the organization of assistance and regular encouragement, children with mental retardation demonstrate a sufficient level of achievements in the intellectual sphere.

In conclusion of the first chapter of the final qualifying work, we note that educational activity is a complex education in its structure. It includes:

Educational and cognitive motives;

training tasks and training operations that make up their operator content;

- control;
- assessment.

Manifestations of mental retardation include delayed emotional-volitional maturation in the form of one or another variant of infantilism, and insufficiency, delayed development of cognitive activity, while the manifestations of this condition can be varied. A child with mental retardation, as it were, corresponds in his mental development to a younger age, but this correspondence is only external.

A scrupulous mental study demonstrates the specific features of his mental activity, the source of which often lies in a non-rough organic insufficiency of those brain systems that are responsible for the child's learning ability, for the possibility of his adaptation to school conditions. Its insufficiency is manifested, first of all, in the low cognitive ability of the child, which manifests itself, as a rule, in all areas of his mental activity.

It is difficult to call such a child inquisitive, as if he “does not see” and “does not hear” much in the world around him, does not try to understand, comprehend the events and phenomena taking place around him. This is due to the peculiarities of his perception, memory, thinking, attention, emotional-volitional sphere.

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STUDENTS WITH MENTALLY RELATED DEVELOPMENT. WHAT ARE THEY?

What is a ZPR? Mental retardation (MPD) is a syndrome of temporary lag in the development of the psyche as a whole or its individual functions, a slowdown in the rate of realization of the body's potential

ZPR is expressed in: insufficient general stock of knowledge limited ideas about the world around immaturity of thinking predominance of game interests quick fatigue in intellectual activity This is emotional and volitional immaturity combined with a lag in the development of the cognitive sphere

Characteristics of children with mental retardation slowed down the process of receiving and processing information insufficiently formed spatial and temporal representations of attention are unstable, concentration is reduced, volume is limited, distractibility and exhaustion are increased, switching and distribution are insufficiently reduced the productivity of voluntary memory do not know how to apply rational methods of memorizing information, mechanical prevails memorization

Characteristics of children with mental retardation Insufficient level of formation of basic mental operations: analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, classification, abstraction Difficulties in constructing a detailed speech statement, they do not always correctly understand the teacher's speech instruction without additional display, explanation Reduced cognitive activity is not formed Learning motivation is broken voluntary regulation of behavior: excessive excitability or excessive inhibition

Personality characteristics of children with mental retardation Children with mental retardation may exhibit the following personality traits: brightness, superficiality, instability of emotions, instability of mood, impulsiveness easy suggestibility self-doubt, timidity, timidity, anxiety lack of a sense of duty, responsibility lack of independence, passivity, lack of initiative unwillingness to work systematically , setting to receive help deceitfulness, resourcefulness

Students with mental retardation can: accept and use help learn the principle of solving a given intellectual operation transfer it to similar tasks study in general education schools under certain conditions

Preview:

Choose the material of the optimal degree of complexity: it should not be too easy and too difficult. The material should be complex to such an extent that the student could cope with it with the effort and some help from an adult. Only in this case will the developmental effect be achieved.
Do not require immediate inclusion in the work. At each lesson, it is imperative to introduce an organizational moment, because. schoolchildren with mental retardation have difficulty switching from previous activities.
Do not put the student in a situation of an unexpected question and a quick answer, be sure to give some time for reflection. It is not recommended to ask first.
To create the most comfortable psychological atmosphere in the lesson: do not call to the board, do not force to answer if the child himself does not take the initiative. Conduct oral interviews in private.
Avoid competitions and any type of work that takes into account speed.
The pace of presentation of educational material should be calm, even, with repeated repetition of the main points.
It is not recommended to give large and complex material for assimilation in a limited period of time, it is necessary to divide it into separate parts and give them gradually.
Set out a number of questions in the form of a review with an emphasis on the most significant conclusions (requirements for students' knowledge in this case may be limited); part of the material is studied in an introductory plan (knowledge on such educational material is not included in the control work); some of the most difficult issues to be excluded from consideration.
Try to facilitate learning activities by using visual supports in the lesson (pictures, diagrams, tables), but not too much, because perception is reduced.
Activate the work of all analyzers (motor, visual, auditory, kinesthetic). Students must listen, watch, speak, etc.
In work, try to activate not so much mechanical as semantic memory.
When performing a task, the instruction should be short. Clear and concise wording of instructions is required.
What is important is not the speed and quantity of what is done, but the thoroughness and correctness of performing the simplest tasks.
At the time of the assignment, it is unacceptable to distract students for any additions, clarifications, instructions, because their attention shift process is reduced.
Gradually, but systematically, include the child in the evaluation of their work.
To concentrate scattered attention, it is necessary to pause before tasks, change intonation and use other methods of attracting attention.
Avoid overwork, give a short-term opportunity for rest, carry out uniform inclusion of dynamic pauses in the lesson (after 10 minutes).
When assessing the dynamics of a child's progress, do not compare him with other children, but only with himself at a previous level of development.
Constantly maintain students' confidence in their abilities, provide them with a subjective experience of success with certain efforts. Immediately encourage the success and achievement of the child.
To develop children's sense of self-respect, taking into account their real awareness of their difficulties and problems.

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Mental retardation in younger schoolchildren.

The concept of mental retardation (MPD) is used in relation to children with minimal organic damage or functional insufficiency of the central nervous system. It can also be applied to children who are for a long time in conditions of social isolation from society or communication with a limited circle of people.
Children with mental retardation are characterized by immaturity of the emotional-volitional sphere and underdevelopment of cognitive activity. The above features are compensated under the influence of temporary therapeutic and pedagogical factors.
Scientists Vlasova T.A., Pevzner M.S. In their book "On Children with Developmental Disabilities", they first described the diagnosis of mental retardation and introduced the term "psychological infantilism".
There are two groups of children with mental retardation. The first group included children with a disturbed pace of physical and mental development. The delay is associated with a slower rate of maturation of the frontal area of the cerebral cortex and its connection with other areas of the cortex and subcortex. Such children are noticeably inferior to their peers both in physical and mental development, they are distinguished by infantilism in cognitive activity and in the volitional sphere. They are hardly included in educational activities, in the classroom they are distinguished by rapid fatigue and low working capacity. The second group includes children with functional disorders of mental activity (cerebro-sthenic conditions), which most often occur due to brain injuries. These children are characterized by weakness of nervous processes, but at the same time they do not have profound impairments in cognitive activity. During periods of stable condition, they achieve good results in their studies.
The reasons for the occurrence of mental retardation, scientists call congenital causes (toxicosis during pregnancy, birth trauma, prematurity, infectious diseases at an early age, genetic predisposition, and others) and acquired (life restriction for a long time, mental trauma, unfavorable conditions in the family, pedagogical neglect) .
In this regard, there are four variants of the ZPR.
1. ZPR of constitutional origin, or harmonic infantilism. The child has an immature physique and at the same time the psyche. Such children quickly get used to school, but do not understand the rules of behavior (they are late for classes, play in class, draw in notebooks). Doesn't respond to ratings. For him, the main thing is the presence of grades in a notebook. As a rule, due to immaturity, such children begin to lag behind in school from the very beginning. For such children, classes should be built in a playful way.
2. ZPR of somatogenic origin occurs in connection with chronic diseases that have affected brain functions. A special regime does not allow them to socialize with their peers. At school, children with this type of mental retardation experience serious difficulties in adapting, they get bored, often cry. passive in class. Such children have no interest in the proposed tasks, there is an inability and unwillingness to overcome difficulties. They do not show initiative, they need constant pedagogical guidance, otherwise they will be disorganized and helpless. With severe fatigue in children, a headache increases, there is no appetite, which serves as a reason for refusing to work. Children with somatogenic mental retardation need systematic medical and educational assistance. It is best to place them in sanatorium-type schools or in ordinary classes to create a medical-pedagogical regimen.
3. ZPR of psychogenic origin is characteristic for children with pedagogical and family neglect, lack of maternal warmth, emotional remoteness reduces the child's motivation, leads to superficial emotions, lack of independence in behavior. This form of mental retardation is typical for children from dysfunctional families, where there is no proper supervision of the child, where there is emotional rejection, but at the same time permissiveness. Parents influence the child through suppression and punishment. This state of the child becomes fertile ground for antisocial behavior. The child becomes passive, clogged, feels increased anxiety. The teacher must show interest in such a child, and in the presence of an individual approach and in the presence of intensive additional classes, gaps in knowledge are quickly filled. Social services need to be consulted.
4. ZPR of cerebro-organic origin manifests itself in children with organic lesions of the central nervous system. The reasons for the deviations are deviations in the development of the brain due to the pathology of pregnancy, fetal asphyxia, infections, birth injuries, alcoholism (drug addiction) of the mother, and serious illnesses in the first year of life. Children with a similar mental retardation quickly get tired, they have reduced performance, poor concentration and memory. They learn the material in fragments, and those quickly forget. Therefore, by the end of the academic year, they do not master the program. Education of children with mental retardation of cerebro-organic origin according to the usual program is not possible. They need corrective pedagogical support.
The issue of mental retardation is not a simple one. It is important for the teacher not only to have a theoretical understanding of the problem, but also to seek help from the specialists of the medical and pedagogical commission.

Depending on the origin (cerebral, constitutional, somatogenic, psychogenic), as well as on the time of exposure to the child's body of harmful factors, mental retardation gives different options for deviations in the emotional-volitional sphere and cognitive activity. As a result of studying the mental processes and learning opportunities for children with mental retardation, a number of specific features were identified in their cognitive, emotional-volitional sphere, behavior and personality as a whole. The following common features for ZPR of various etiologies were identified: low performance as a result of increased exhaustion; immaturity of emodia and will; limited stock of general information and ideas; poor vocabulary; not formed skills of intellectual activity; incomplete formation of gaming activity. Perception is characterized by slowness. Difficulties in verbal-logical operations are revealed in thinking. The efficiency and quality of mental activity in solving visual-effective problems is significantly increased. These children suffer from all types of memory, there is no ability to use aids for memorization. A longer period is needed to receive and process sensory information. In addition, there is a low level of self-control, which is especially evident in educational activities. By the beginning of schooling, these children, as a rule, have not formed the basic mental operations - analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization. They do not know how to navigate the task, do not plan their activities.

All of the above distinguishes children with mental retardation from normally developing peers. In the conditions of a mass general education school, children with mental retardation naturally fall into the category of stably underachievers, which further traumatizes their psyche and causes a negative attitude towards learning. This in some cases leads to conflicts between the school and the child's family.

Only a competent medical and pedagogical commission, consisting of highly qualified specialists of various profiles, can differentiate mental retardation from mental retardation. Let us give only the main (sometimes not very pronounced at first glance) signs that distinguish mental retardation from mental retardation.

Unlike mentally retarded children, children with mental retardation have higher learning ability, they better use the help of a teacher or elders and are able to transfer the shown method of action to a similar task or choose an adequate stereotype of behavior in a similar situation.

When mastering reading, writing, and counting, they often reveal errors of the same type as mentally retarded children, but nevertheless they have qualitative differences. So, with a weak reading technique, children with mental retardation always try to understand what they read, resorting, if necessary, to repeated reading (without instructions from the teacher). Mentally retarded children cannot understand what they read, so their retelling may be inconsistent and illogical.

The letter draws attention to the unsatisfactory skill of calligraphy, negligence, etc., which, according to experts, may be associated with underdevelopment of motor skills, spatial perception. Causes difficulties phonetic and phonetic-phonemic analysis. In mentally retarded children, these shortcomings are more pronounced.

When studying mathematics, there are difficulties in mastering the composition of a number, counting through a dozen, in solving problems with indirect formulations of conditions, etc. But help from a teacher is more effective here than in teaching mentally retarded children. Taking this into account, it is necessary to conduct an examination of children in the form of a teaching experiment in the case of differentiated diagnosis of mental retardation from mental retardation.

Since employees of preschool institutions and primary school teachers quite often have to deal with this category of children, let us dwell in more detail on the characteristics of the mastery of basic general educational disciplines by children with mental retardation and the characteristics of their study in special schools (classes) for this category of children.

An analysis of the oral speech of children with mental retardation showed that it satisfies the needs of everyday communication. There are no gross violations of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammatical structure. However, the speech of children in general, as a rule, is blurry, not clear enough, which is associated with low mobility of the articulatory apparatus.

Deficiencies in pronunciation, and sometimes perception in some children, are associated with any one pair of sounds, with good pronunciation and discrimination of all the others. To correct pronunciation defects in special schools for children with mental retardation, speech therapy classes are provided.

The main tasks of the preparatory period are to draw the attention of children to the word, to make speech as a whole the subject of their consciousness. Particular importance during this period is given to the formation and development of phonemic perception, sound analysis and synthesis, intelligibility and expressiveness of speech.

Children with mental retardation entering school have specific features of a psychological and pedagogical nature. They do not show readiness for schooling, they do not have the stock of knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for mastering the program material. Therefore, they are not able to master the account, reading and writing without special help. They experience difficulty in voluntary activities. Their difficulties are exacerbated by the weakened state of their nervous system. Students with mental retardation get tired quickly, sometimes they simply stop doing the activity they started.

All this suggests that ZPR manifests itself both in a slow maturation of the emotional-volitional sphere and in intellectual insufficiency. The latter is manifested in the fact that the intellectual abilities of the child do not correspond to his age.

A significant lag and originality is found in mental activity. All children with mental retardation have memory deficiencies, and this applies to all types of memorization: involuntary and voluntary, short-term and long-term. This applies to the memorization of both visual and (especially) verbal material, which cannot but affect academic performance. The lag in mental activity and features of memory are most clearly manifested in the process of solving problems associated with such components of mental activity as analysis, synthesis, generalization, abstraction. This circumstance in a number of cases forces primary school teachers to raise the question of the child's mental retardation.

However, studies conducted at the Research Institute of Defectology of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR (V.I. Lubovsky, 1981) showed that when independently analyzing and describing an object that has at least 20 signs, children with mental retardation on average distinguish 6-7, while they are normal developing peers allocate at least 12. But these same children (with mental retardation), when providing the necessary assistance (when explaining the principle of completing a task, performing a similar task under the guidance of a teacher), when performing a similar task under the guidance of a teacher), they already distinguish 10-11 signs when they are repeated. Mentally retarded children before and after helping them identify 4-5 and 5-6 signs, respectively. The fact that children with mental retardation after assistance are able to perform the proposed task at a level close to the norm allows us to speak about their qualitative difference from mentally retarded children.

The speech of the category of children under consideration is also peculiar. Many of them are characterized by defects in pronunciation, which naturally leads to difficulties in the process of mastering reading and writing. They have a poor (especially active) vocabulary. The concepts that children have in the dictionary are often inferior - narrowed, inaccurate, and sometimes simply erroneous. Children with mental retardation do not master empirical grammatical generalizations well, so there are many incorrect grammatical constructions in their speech. A number of grammatical categories are not used by them at all. Children with mental retardation experience difficulties in understanding and using complex logical-grammatical structures and some parts of speech.

The speech of children with mental retardation of senior preschool and primary school age is qualitatively different from the speech of their normally developing peers and mentally retarded children. They have a period of children's "word-creation" later than normal, the period of using "neologisms" in speech is delayed. Mentally retarded children do not have this period at all.

The behavior of these children differs significantly. After entering school, in the initial period of education, they continue to behave like preschoolers. The game continues to be the leading activity. Children do not have a positive attitude towards school, towards learning. Learning motivation is absent or very weakly expressed. A number of researchers believe that the state of their emotional-volitional sphere and behavior corresponds, as it were, to the previous age stage of development.

It is important to note that in the conditions of a mass school, a child with mental retardation for the first time begins to clearly realize his inadequacy, which is expressed primarily in his poor progress. This, on the one hand, leads to the emergence and development of a sense of inferiority, and on the other hand, to attempts at personal compensation in some other area, sometimes in various forms of behavioral disturbance.

Obviously, according to the peculiarities of educational activity, the nature of behavior, the state of the emotional-volitional sphere, children with mental retardation significantly differ from their normally developing peers. Therefore, as in the case of mentally retarded children, for the special education and upbringing of this category of children, a correctional orientation is specific.

Educational and correctional work with children of this category is very extensive and varied. The most general principles and rules of this work are as follows:

it is necessary to carry out an individual approach to each child both in the lessons of the general education cycle and during special classes;

it is necessary to prevent the onset of fatigue, using a variety of means for this (alternating mental and practical activities, presenting material in small doses, using interesting and colorful didactic material and visual aids, etc.);

in the learning process, one should use those methods that can maximize the cognitive activity of children, develop their speech and form the necessary skills of educational activities;

in the system of corrective measures, it is necessary to provide for preparatory (for the assimilation of one or another section of the program) classes (propaedeutic period) and to ensure the enrichment of children with knowledge about the world around them;

in the classroom and after school hours, it is necessary to pay constant attention to the correction of all types of children's activities;

While working with children, the teacher must show a special pedagogical tact. It is very important to constantly notice and encourage the slightest successes of children, to help each child in a timely and tactful manner, to develop in him faith in his own strengths and capabilities.