Special educational institutions designed for training with various developmental disabilities. There are eight types of such schools in total. For the education of deaf children, correctional institutions of the 1st type have been created. Special schools of the 2nd type are designed for teaching hard of hearing children with partial hearing loss and varying degrees underdevelopment of speech. Correctional schools of the 3rd and 4th types are organized for training, education, correction of developmental disabilities with disabilities. Such educational institutions accept blind and visually impaired children, children with amblyopia, strabismus, with complex combinations of visual impairments, suffering from eye diseases leading to blindness.
Correctional schools of the 5th type are intended for those with severe speech pathologies, children with severe general underdevelopment of speech, with stuttering. Special educational institutions of the 6th type were created for the education and upbringing of children with any developmental disorders of the musculoskeletal system, with cerebral palsy, deformities of the musculoskeletal system. Special schools of the 7th type are designed for the education and upbringing of children with a delay mental development. With preserved opportunities for intellectual development, such children have attention, memory, increased exhaustion, lack of pace mental processes, emotional instability, lack of formation of arbitrary regulation of activity. Correctional educational institutions of the 8th type were created for the education and upbringing of children with mental retardation.
Correctional schools of the 8th type
The purpose of creating special educational institutions of the 8th type is the correction of deviations in development, as well as socio-psychological for further integration into society. In such schools, classes are created for children with severe mental retardation, the occupancy of such classes should not exceed 8. Pupils of schools of the 8th type have irreversible developmental disorders and will never be able to catch up with their peers, therefore, to a greater extent, these educational institutions are aimed at developing their life competence for adaptation in society, which makes it possible to avoid social catastrophes. In a small one, they are given academic knowledge that is directed to maintaining socialization. Children with intellectual disabilities study according to a special program up to the 9th grade. Those who can master working profession, are engaged, in the future, in low-skilled labor.
What is the attitude of people around to children with disabilities? For the most part, adults refer to them as "poor and unfortunate", and the children's community rejects them as "abnormal". Very rarely, a special child meets interest from other people, a desire to make friends.
Even worse is the situation with education. Not every school is ready to teach a child with special educational needs. So far, inclusion - education in a mass secondary school - remains only a dream of parents of special children.
The fate of many of these children is education in correctional schools, which are not always close to home, but often in another city. Therefore, most often they have to live in a boarding school.
Currently, the types of correctional schools are determined taking into account the primary defect of students. Each of the eight types of general education institutions for children with special educational needs has its own specifics.
A special correctional educational institution of the 1st type accepts deaf children within its walls. The task of teachers is to teach to communicate with others, to master several types of speech: oral, written, dactyl, gestural. The curriculum includes courses aimed at hearing compensation through the use of sound amplifying equipment, pronunciation correction, social orientation and others.
A similar work is carried out by a correctional school of the 2nd type, but only for hearing-impaired or late-deaf children. It is aimed at restoring lost hearing abilities, organizing active speech practice, and teaching communication skills.
The first and second types of correctional schools carry out educational process on three steps general education. However, deaf students need two more years to complete the primary school curriculum.
The third and fourth types of correctional schools are for children with visual impairments. The teachers of these special educational institutions organize the process of education and upbringing in such a way as to preserve other analyzers, develop corrective and compensatory skills, and ensure the social adaptation of children in society.
Blind children, as well as children from 0.04 to 0.08 with complex defects leading to blindness, are sent to correctional school 3 types. IN educational institution 4 types are accepted children with visual acuity from 0.05 to 0.4 with the possibility of correction. The specificity of the defect involves training using tiflo equipment, as well as special didactic materials that allow you to assimilate incoming information.
A special correctional institution of the 5th type is intended for children with general underdevelopment of speech, as well as severe speech pathology. The main goal of the school is the correction of a speech defect. The entire educational process is organized in such a way that children have the opportunity to develop speech skills throughout the day. When the speech defect is eliminated, parents have the right to transfer the child to a regular school.
Children with a violation of the musculoskeletal system can study in a correctional school of the 6th type. In a correctional institution, the restoration of motor functions, their development, and the correction of secondary defects are carried out. Special attention given to pupils.
Correctional school of the 7th type accepts children with mental retardation, and with the possibilities of intellectual development. The school carries out the correction of mental development, the development of cognitive activity and the formation of skills in educational activities. Based on the results, pupils can be transferred to a general education school.
Correctional school of the 8th type is needed for children with mental retardation to study according to a special program. The purpose of the training is social and psychological rehabilitation and the possibility of integrating the child into society. In such schools, there are classes with in-depth labor training.
Almost all of the listed types of correctional schools have been teaching children for twelve years and have defectologists, speech therapists, and psychologists on their staff.
There is no doubt that children who have studied for so many years in a boarding school have certain difficulties in social orientation. Big role in the integration of special children into society belongs not only to correctional schools, but also to parents. A family fighting for their child will certainly be able to help him adapt to the world around him.
Children with general underdevelopment of speech of levels 2 and 3 with severe forms of speech pathology such as: dysarthria, rhinolalia, alalia, aphasia, dyslexia, dysgraphia, stuttering are enrolled in a special (correctional) school of the 5th type. Junior schoolchildren with the above diagnoses are enrolled in the 1st department of the speech school, in the 2nd department are enrolled children with stuttering without general underdevelopment of speech.
In the system of teaching students of the 1st and 2nd departments, there is a general and a specific one.
Differences: Students of the 2nd department study according to the mass school program, and the learning rate is equal to 1:1. Students of the 1st department study according to a special program (the program was developed by the staff of the Institute of Defectology, the latest version of the program is dated 1987). For 10 years of education, children master the program in the amount of 9 classes of a mass school.
Students of the speech school receive a qualifying state document on incomplete secondary education. If by the end schooling If it is possible to completely overcome the speech defect, then the child can continue his education. With successful correction of speech disorders at any stage of education, the child can be transferred to a public school.
Similarities: all lessons are taught by teachers - speech therapists (in the lower grades, the exception is the lessons of music, rhythm, physical education); correctional work to eliminate speech disorders is carried out by a teacher who works with the class.
To the program initial level 1 department introduced special lessons: on the formation of pronunciation, speech development, literacy.
IN high school subject teachers must complete defectological courses. Correctional and speech therapy work is carried out by a teacher of the Russian language and literature, who must have the obligatory qualification "teacher-speech therapist".
In Moscow there are now 5 schools for children with severe speech disorders, one of them specializes only in stuttering.
An integrated approach is carried out only in the conditions of a boarding school: a speech therapist and 2 educators work with each class. Turns out health care psychoneurologist. Psychologists work with children.
In school conditions, the child receives physiotherapy appointments, and the rate of a specialist in adapted physical education is also introduced.
The problem of remedial education and upbringing of children with mental retardation was considered by: T.P. Bessonova, L.F. Spirova, G.V. Chirkina, A.V. Yastrebova.
School-age children with mild speech disorders study in public schools and can receive speech therapy assistance at school speech centers. Children with FFN, as well as children with dysgraphia or dyslexia are enrolled at the logopoint. Classes are held individually or with subgroups of 4-5 people. During the year, 30-40 people should go through the logopoint. The speech therapist maintains the following documentation: extracts from the PMPK protocols on the enrollment of children at the speech center, speech cards and plans individual work, registration log, long-term and calendar plans, plans for working with parents and teachers.
Kindergarten for children with speech disorders as a type of special educational institution.
Children with speech disorders are admitted to speech therapy kindergartens, speech therapy groups at mass kindergartens, they receive assistance at preschool logopoints at mass kindergartens.
For children with general underdevelopment of speech, senior and preparatory groups are opened. Children are accepted from the age of 5, the period of study is two years. Group size is 10-12 people. The groups work according to special programs of T.B. Filicheva and G.V. Chirkina. In recent years, more and more children with OHP (with 1-2 levels speech development) are accepted in groups from 4 years to 3 years. But there are no approved programs for such groups yet.
For children with phonetic and phonemic underdevelopment, either an older or a preparatory group is opened, with a training period of one year. Group size is 12-14 people. For the preparatory group, the program was developed by G.A. Kashe, and for the senior group - by T.B. Filicheva and G.V. Chirkina.
For children with stuttering, special speech therapy groups are opened, in which children from 2-3 years old are accepted. Group size is 8-10 people. Groups of different ages. They work according to the program of S.A. Mironova, developed on the basis of the Program of education and upbringing in a kindergarten of a general type and the methodology for overcoming stuttering by N.A. Cheveleva. This technique involves the child accompanying his subject-practical actions with speech, therefore speech therapy work is based on drawing, modeling, application, design.
One of the most common forms of organization of speech therapy assistance to children of preschool age is currently the so-called preschool speech centers. There are no federal regulations. A regulation has been developed for Moscow and the Moscow Region, according to which children with FPP or with impaired pronunciation of certain sounds should receive assistance. Children are enrolled through PMPK, at least 25-30 people per year. The structure of children is mobile.
There are currently eight main types special schools for children with various developmental disabilities. In order to exclude the inclusion of diagnostic characteristics in the details of these schools (as it was before: a school for the mentally retarded, a school for the deaf, etc.), these schools are named in legal and official documents according to their type serial number:
- special (correctional) educational institution of the 1st type (boarding school for deaf children);
- special (correctional) educational institution of the II type (boarding school for hearing-impaired and late deaf children);
- special (correctional) educational institution of the III type (boarding school for blind children);
- special (correctional) educational institution of the IV type (boarding school for visually impaired children);
- special (correctional) educational institution of the 5th type (boarding school for children with severe speech disorders);
- special (correctional) educational institution of the VI type (boarding school for children with disorders of the musculoskeletal system);
- special (correctional) educational institution of type VII (school or boarding school for children with learning difficulties - mental retardation);
- special (correctional) educational institution VIII type (school or boarding school for children with mental retardation).
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 constituent entities of the Russian Federation (department, committee, ministry) of education of a 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.
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 mass secondary school: for example, basic general education, general secondary education). They are given a document state sample, 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 on the conclusion (recommendation) of the psychological, medical and pedagogical commission. Also with the consent of the parents and on the basis of PMPK conclusions a child can be transferred within 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 structure of a defect as such children are identified in the course of psychological, medical and pedagogical observation under 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, the creation of 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, a special school provides children with disabilities with health and life psychological support for which there are appropriate specialists in the staff of the special school. 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. His role especially increases at the stage of choosing a profession, graduating from the School and transition to the post-school period.
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:
1st stage - primary general education (for 5-6 years or 6-7 years - in the case of studying in the preparatory class);
2nd stage - basic general education (for 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 working on a bilingual basis, equal teaching of the language of verbal and sign language is carried out, but studying proccess conducted in sign language.
As part of a special school of type I, 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 not more than 6 people, in classes for children with a complex defect structure up to 5 people.
Special school II type, where the hearing impaired (having partial hearing loss and varying degrees underdevelopment of speech) and late-deafened children (deafened in preschool or school age, but retaining independent speech), has two branches:
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 recommendations of the PMPK, such a transition is taking place.
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-visual perception, the formation and correction of the pronunciation side of speech are carried out on specially organized individual and group lessons using sound-amplifying equipment for collective use and individual hearing aids.
The development of auditory perception and automation of pronunciation skills continue in the classes of phonetic rhythm and various types music-related activities.
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 school III type 12 years, for 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 who have 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 speech disorder eliminated, the child may, 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 study at a school of type V, 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.
Type VI special school is intended for the education of children with disorders of the musculoskeletal system ( movement disorders having 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 extremities).
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 generally.
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 Type VII school, 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 the Type VII school retain the possibility of transferring to a regular school as developmental deviations are corrected, 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 on individual and group remedial 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 focus is on social adaptation and vocational training during the development by students of the volume of educational content available to them in general subjects.
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 class vocational training, 10 years with a 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 confirming the assignment of the corresponding qualification category.
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 people.
Children can be sent to a preparatory (diagnostic) class. During school year the preliminary diagnosis is specified, and depending on this, on 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.
The completion of classes for children with severe intellectual underdevelopment is carried out at three levels:
1st level - at the age of 6 to 9 years;
2nd level - from 9 to 12 years;
3rd level - from 13 to 18 years.
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 school occurs in accordance with the recommendations of the PMPK and in agreement with the parents.
Such classes do not accept children with psychopathic behavior, epilepsy and other mental illness! requiring active treatment. These kids can visit ko! advisory groups with 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.
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" dated July 18, 1996 No. 861. In Lately schools of home education began to be created, the staff of which, consisting of qualified specialists-speech pathologists, psychologists, works with children both at home and in the conditions of partial stay of such children in a school of home education. 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 established by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. special list. 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. Teachers-defectologists, who are additionally attracted to conduct corrective work, also take part in the certification.
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 damp, may contain some inaccuracies, but I liked it with rich content, coverage of the a wide range problems associated with the education of children, as it is now customary to say, with developmental features. The state proclaimed the right of every child to study in a general education school and the duty educational organizations create appropriate conditions for it. 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 invented 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 Primary 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 primary education, and the component of labor training 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? By 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 graduates of special schools received a good education, 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 christian church a deaf person is a dissident because 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 get a 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, study guides, 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 the beginning of the 1980s, countries that had gone much further than us in the training and employment of disabled people 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 West, we admire the level and quality of life of people with disabilities. These are free medical care, free prosthetics, sports for the disabled, etc. western world moved towards 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 force 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 began to solve them 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 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 in the late 70s of the last century, the Scandinavians achieved a very high level life, when medical assistance, 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, 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 evolutionary development 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 countries 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 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: 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 very short story, and we are trying to jump over a regular 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 Vasilyevich Suvorov, became a professor, doctor psychological sciences, lecturer 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 are unable 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 the federal law on the education of children with disabilities 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 should ensure the development of correctional schools, inclusive education, schools of a combined type, in which a variety of 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. - that's great, but hearing-impaired child from all this it will become better to hear, and the blind - 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 color the picture 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 children can study both with disabilities and ordinary children, both from complete families and orphans. They may have different diagnoses, educational perspectives, but they must 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 school model, 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. Can be united under one roof 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, 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 for each such student.
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 for each to make up their own own program. 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 actually 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 the UK 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 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. 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 smiles at all, not good attitude to 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 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 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, of course, 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, their 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.
