Elena F. Arhipova

The article deals with the immediate prospects for those teachers employed in children public organizations (CPO) in the context of implementing the Federal Preschool Educational Standard for the education of disabled infant and young children with various developmental disorders. It presents practiceoriented materials designed to help CPO educators in their work with special needs children in infant and early ages. Some infants and young children with developmental deviations have not been diagnosed as yet and neither have the peculiarities of their deviant development been identified. This has had a negative impact on their development in leaving out sensitive and favorable periods for leveling off their development. CPO teachers working in infant and young children groups may be the first to reveal such children’s individual characteristics and special educational needs. They are in a position to choose a differentiated approach to organizing the type of interaction these children require. The main objective of this article is to help a preschool teacher to acquaint oneself with the organization and content of the psychological and pedagogical corrective educational process in regard to physically challenged infant and young children in CPOs.

The article deals with the content of the work teachers in preschool educational establishments are engaged in regarding children with special educational needs. Teachers are offered a number of health-saving pedagogical technologies of an express correctional orientation. Health-saving (correctional) educational technologies can be used in group work with all types of children, not just with those involved in adaptive educational programs. Besides, some of the technologies described below can be offered selectively to a special needs child taking into account his/her specific characteristics. The health-saving (correctional) educational technologies will also be beneficial and available to every participant in the educational process: psychologists, teachers, educators, music instructors, social pedagogues, physical culture instructors and specialists involved in implementing adaptive curricula, and groups with a compensatory or combined focus. Most of the health-saving (correctional) educational technologies listed in this article are available to a special needs child’s parents for use in the home. Application of these technologies does not require that they should have some specialized training in defectology. Mastering these (remedial) pedagogical technologies will enhance the level of pedagogical competence among parents of children with special needs and will help to improve the mental, speech and motor development of a child with special educational needs.

The main objective of this article is to help a preschool teacher to get acquainted with the organization and contents of the corrective educational process for children with disabilities. This category of children has special educational needs. Children with disabilities can receive preschool education in groups of combined or compensatory patterns in preschool educational facilities. Preschool education groups of compensating and combination patterns organize and implement the educational process for children with disabilities and special needs in accordance with customized educational programs. The author’s focus is on the development of such customized programs. “Model Basic Educational Program of Preschool Education” (MBEP) has been published in the Russian Federation Education and Science Ministry’s official register of model basic education programs. MBEP contains a section called “Program of corrective and developing work for children with disabilities and special needs.” This section shows an algorithm for developing customized programs for children with disabilities and special needs. This knowledge will help to enhance kindergarten teachers’ pedagogical skills necessary to implement the Federal State Education Standard in preschool education in the process of organizing inclusive education in preschool educational establishments.

The article is devoted to the work with children with disabilities. After the introduction of the federal Standard of the preschool education these problems have become especially relevant. A key principle of the Standard is to support the diversity of each child, including the child with health disabilities. The author pays particular attention to the importance of training for work with children. Teachers of preschool educational institutions should know and take into account the individual characteristics of children with health disabilities to acquaint parents with the peculiarities of their interaction with children, to provide psychological support to the family in implementing educational activities in the frame of the developmental program. The article is focused on the need to develop an individual route of education for every child.

This article analytically discusses questions of children’s fine motor skills (fingers and wrist) development, and the significance of finger gymnastics for language development in children. Verbal and non-verbal components of communication are examined. Developmental milestones of fine motor skills for children from birth to primary school are pinpointed. Particularities and weaknesses of fine motor skills of children with speech disorders are distinguished. Specialized strategies for promoting the children’s fine motor development are offered. Positive results are expected upon the systematic implementation of finger gymnastics. The author characterizes the different types of finger gymnastics: passive, passive-active and active. The article gives recommendations on how to incorporate finger gymnastics into everyday life. It also gives a brief description of the types of finger games.

The article deals with the issue of enhancing the educational correctional competence of parents who have children with special educational needs. The author reveals the rationale behind it and identifies the challenges that organizing cooperation between preschool educational institutions and the family involves. Author examines the terms and conditions of parents’ participation as legal representatives in educational activities. The articles lists types of educational activities aimed at implementing the pre-school educational program in line with the professional standards. It provides research data which helps to identify four scenarios of parents’ response to the news that their child has developmental issues. The article gives a brief description of parents’ possible reactions to experts’ conclusion about their child’s special development or health limitations. The author describes different levels of parental motivation and their willingness to cooperate with experts. Author also provides some insights into why parents are little motivated to actively participate in the pedagogical correction process. The article gives guidelines for interaction with the family of a child who has speech disorders. It provides references to literature on planning cooperation between a preschool and a family that has a child with speech disorders.

The article deals with the question of providing assistance to kindergarten children with severe speech disorders, in particular, with the mild form of dysarthria. Preschool educational organization may include children whose speech is slurred, gibberish, accelerated and inexpressive. These children refuse to recite poetry at matinees, and show a lack of motor dexterity at music and physical education lessons. Many children who suffer from obliterated dysarthria, have a poor command of self-service skills, they are often found to have fine motor skill disorders. Thus, the defect structure in the light form of dysarthria includes not only speech problems, but also those involving the psychological and motor speech basis. The mild case of dysarthria, which is mainly manifested in unintelligible speech in preschool years, becomes complicated by written language acquisition difficulties at school age. Many teachers regard these mistakes as errors due to inattention, but these errors stem from a speech disorder – obliterated dysarthria when children are observed to articulate speech sounds in an unclear or blurred way. All this prevents them from learning their school subjects successfully. At the same time, speech therapists and specialists, kindergarten teachers and parents are in a position to help a child with obliterated dysarthria as early as in his preschool period. They can eliminate the disturbances that hamper clear and distinct speech, and remove the preconditions for written speech disorders in children. The article examines questions of how to detect nonverbal disorders and to overcome them in a kindergarten.

The article discusses psychological and pedagogical support of, and care for children with severe speech disorders, i.e. stuttering. A preschool educational organization may have to take care of a stuttering child who is receiving pre-school education inclusively in a combined (inclusive) group based on an adapted educational program. The article deals with questions concerning the time when stuttering occurred, the forms in which stuttering was expressed and the main causes of this severe speech disorder. It provides basic symptoms that are manifest in various forms of stuttering, as well as different directions in which stuttering develops. It considers a therapeutic and pedagogical complex to be recommended in order to overcome stuttering. Of practical significance to preschool center teachers and parents of children with stuttering are ‘the speech rules’ which the article offers for stuttering children. Implementation and further compliance with “the speech rules” are necessary to eliminate stuttering in children and to form a new fluent speech skill. Useful tips are also offered to teachers and parents who provide psychological and pedagogical help and support to children with stuttering during their complex remedial work. Since stuttering is one of the most persistent severe speech disorders, affecting not only speech, but also other spheres – the somatic, neurological, psychological, motor, personal and others in a child’s life, it may be concluded that stuttering is easier to prevent than to correct. Early detection and prevention of stuttering and preventive psychological and pedagogical help by teachers and doctors can stop the further progression of stuttering.

The article raises the question of early education of preschoolers, starting with infancy. This period is of particular importance when it comes to identifying problems in a child’s development. In some cases it is possible to prevent the occurrence of a child’s limited health capacity with the help of early detection of development disorders and timely psychological and pedagogical help provided to the child along with counseling for the child’s family. The article also states the statistical data on the coverage of pre-school education in Russia and European countries. Further, the article presents organizational and methodological approaches to the performance of the structural divisions focused on helping children with developmental problems: lekoteks, early help services, playing facilities for children’s development and counseling centers.

The article provides a clear-cut definition of the categories of children with disabilities, a brief description of severe speech disorders and the specifics of the development of such children. The author tried to show preschool educators the specificity of different types of severe speech disorders in preschool children. The article gives the definition and description of such speech defects as dysarthria, sensory and motor alalia, children’s aphasia, stuttering, and general underdevelopment of speech and rhinolalia. The article offers a program for correcting various speech disorders, the author’s own methods and recommendations for the content of educational programs adapted for children with severe speech disorders. At the end of the article we provide a long list of references and important online resource for parents who have children with developmental problems.

The author continues to acquaint readers with guidelines for ensuring the corrective content of adaptive educational programs for preschool education in major educational areas applicable to different categories of children with health limitations. The article presents some recommendations as to the content of corrective methodical support for pre-school education of children with hearing impairments. It gives characteristic features of hearing loss and the specifics of such children’s development. It also lists conditions for training and educating children with hearing impairments. The article discusses the methodological support for an adaptive program to provide preschool education to children with hearing disabilities in all areas of learning. An adaptive educational program for a hearing impaired child is envisaged to provide a plan and direction for correction and development in all preschool educational areas. Each educational area in the adaptive educational program for children with hearing impairments should formulate basic correctional goals and objectives and give a list of specific literary sources of corrective and developing orientation.

This article describes guidelines that ensure the remedial aspect of customized educational programs for preschool education in basic educational areas in accordance with the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standards for preschool education. The author dwells on the methodological recommendations ensuring the remedial aspect of customized preschool education programs (five educational areas) for children with musculoskeletal system disorders and cerebral palsy. The author gives recommendations for creating an algorithm of drawing up customized preschool educational programs and its content based on the model baseline educational program of preschool education. The article lists remedial guidelines, which have been published in the works by well-known authors and dedicated to the issues of psychological and pedagogical support of children with a severe type of health limitations, i.e. those with cerebral palsy. Each educational area has a model created for conducting remedial work among children with health limitations. The article ends with a list of legal documents on the issue of educating children with health limitations.

This article deals with the training of teachers for preschool educational organizations to work with children with disabilities and special educational needs. Teachers employed in preschool education organizations groups that implement customized programs are required to know the features of special needs children. In this article the main characteristics of the Corrective and Inclusive Practice section in the From Birth to School educational program are analyzed. The section offers teachers an algorithm of organizing a meaningful interaction with children with disabilities in both combined groups which engage in inclusive education of several children and in groups with a compensatory focus in which each child has developmental problems. In this article a brief description of the main features and the specifics of different categories of children with disabilities and children with minimal manifestations of disorders is provided.

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.

The article presents analyzed data from a poll of early childhood education undergraduate students. The aim of the poll was to capture their understanding of their place in educational process, attainment of skills necessary for employment, and position on modern educational trends, in inclusive education. The demands on preschool teachers, on their basic occupational tasks according to the professional standard, are presented. The poll was in the form of the essay. The article shows the structure of the essay and the list of questions to the undergraduates. To illustrate fragments of the essays, students’ answers are given. The results of the analysis are shown in diagrams. The study reveals the most pressing issues, the answers to which can help better prepare undergraduates for future vocational activity with disabled children.

This article looks at the problem of myofunctional disorders in preschool children and the consequences of these disorders. It examines the pathological symptoms of child development which are consequences of mouth breathing, open-mouth posture and poor myofunctional habits. It also presents the correlated dependence of myofunctional disorders and the level of speech and language development in children. The article gives scientific grounds for the application of the trainer “INFANT” in speech-language activities. Technical characteristics of the trainer “INFANT” and directions for its use in practice are presented; both in process of correction of myofunctional disorders and as preventive care of speech-language disorders. The stages and content of speech-language activities with the trainer “INFANT” are provided. The findings of empirical research and the results of the application of the trainer “INFANT” in speech-language activities with 3-4 years old children are documented.

This article focuses on the problem of general speech and language disorders. Questions of categorization depending upon the intensity of speech and language disorders are analytically discussed. Groups which include children with severe speech and language impairments are described. The author characterizes the four levels of speech and language skill development in children with speech and language disorders. The aims and job description of a preschool teacher in preschools for children at speech and language development level one are pinpointed. This is the most severe level of speech and language disorders, which is characterized by a child’s inability to communicate via speech. Recommendations for language skill development and comprehension skill development may be interesting for preschool educators. A summary table for sound imitation is given. Preschool teachers can use it as a guide for the accumulation of sound imitations in children, to enrich his means of communication and activate his communicative possibilities. Variants of the expansion of children’s speech repertoire are analyzed. This article provides the speech and language models for speech and language development. Some recommendations for the development of attention, memory, and logical thinking in children with speech and language disorders are given. Also examined are techniques for interacting through play with a child with first level speech and language development to improve hearing attention, phonemic awareness, and fine motor skills.

Article deals with the diagnostic tests which determine the structure of a handicap in children with locomotor disorders. Data about what is characteristic for children of this category is given. It is specified that permanent psychological, medical and pedagogical support is required for inclusive education and the inclusion of a child with locomotor disorders (including cerebral palsy) in a general education group. Necessary support is identified within their individual rehabilitation program and determined by special educational needs. The findings of research on identifying the special conditions for the inclusive education of children with locomotor disorders are provided. It is stressed that people with locomotor disorders need to be differentiated into three groups in order to choose their educational route. The first group includes children who may be encouraged to receive education in terms of inclusion. The second group includes children to whom preschool education in groups oriented towards compensation is recommended. The third group includes children who should receive preschool education in short-stay groups. The article also gives the general special education needs of children with locomotor disorders, and the individual needs, which typical of certain groups of children with locomotor disorders. Individual special educational needs are divided into three levels: minimum, medium, maximum.