All articles

Influential studies in different countries over recent years show significant changes in child-rearing culture, or parenting practices and attitudes that are considered good and correct. Studies have also been conducted in Russia but so far, they have been few. Based on the analysis of existing studies, as well as 50 interviews with mothers of preschool age children conducted in 2014-2018, the paper examines the specifics of intensive parenthood. Among these features, we have identified the following: 1) intensive methods of upbringing (which require a lot of time, money and substantial emotional work), 2) parental determinism (the belief that all actions taken with the child and all decisions related to the upbringing of the child have an impact on the rest of the child’s life) and the attitude about the critical importance of early childhood, 3) optimization of the environment around the child, control over various aspects of the child’s life, 4) reliance on scientific and expert knowledge in upbringing, rather than on personal experience or tradition. These features of modern parents in Russia are important for effective communication between parents and teachers, as well as for the development of educational programs for parents implemented by preschool organizations. Such programs can become a support for parents in overcoming the difficulties caused by the modern model of child upbringing. It is particularly important to focus not on improving the skills and knowledge of parents but on increasing the self-efficacy of parents (i.e., ensuring that they are able to cope with possible problems rather than transmitting any knowledge) and reducing anxiety.

The article describes the characteristics of children with Down’s Syndrome. It presents the main factors which may result in the birth of children with this syndrome, historical information and data related to the structure of the defects with Down Syndrome. The mechanism of the most common speech disorder in children, Dysarthia, is given. The process of psychological, medical and pedagogical consultation is examined and the opportunity for children in kindergarten to learn according to the adjusted program is described. Recommendations are given to kindergarten level educators concerning the involvement of a child in the education process, specifically in terms of implementing principles of inclusive education. The article highlights the sections related to intervention in the compensating groups or inclusive groups. Exercises for preschool educators are also described. The methods of Dr. Libby Kumin are analyzed.

This article describes the development of the system of special schools and preschools Russia towards the deepening of differentiation in accordance with an important principle of modern pedagogy – the achievement of the highest possible individualization in education. Unfolded in recent years, the integration of disabled children into regular educational institutions, particularly in the form of inclusion, is directly opposite this principle of pedagogy and ignores the patterns of mental activity in disabled children. It is also amazing that the realization of this integration was brought in by non-experts, showing a lack of understanding of these laws/patterns: through the introduction of inclusion they ruined the inclusive education of children with impaired speech, who, studying in a regular school, had received speech therapy in school speech therapy centers. Data is provided on the 35 year long experience of implementing integration in the US and the 30 year experience in the UK. In both countries there is no consensus among experts on the feasibility of integration, especially in the form of inclusion. A disabled child in a regular school loses most of the funds and conditions, which provide special education, while he, wherever he studies, remains the object of special education. There is no conclusive research that would prove that even one of the claimed benefits of inclusion has been achieved. Moreover, increasing attention to the adaptation of textbooks convinces us that the basic idea of inclusion – the education of a disabled child in the same class with normally developing children, and the same curriculum and the same textbooks for most disabled children – is untenable.