Special Education Program For Elementary Schoolchildren With Special Needs

Abstract

In the process of inclusive education, children with disabilities experience a higher degree of progress in social development. The positive side of inclusive education is that it forms such social values ​​for all participants in the educational process as tolerance, mutual respect, mutual cooperation, self-awareness as a member of society. Inclusive education also gives a chance to develop humanistic skills and abilities, to teach each other and help both oneself and people around. But it should be noted that the process of including these children in mass educational institutions involves many difficulties. The relevance is justified by problems caused by the introduction of inclusive / integrated education in educational practice, that is, co-education and schooling of children with ordinary educational needs and special educational needs (SEN). The purpose of the study is to form correct behavior, master communication skills and ability to control own behavior in conflict and other stressful situations. Some identified problems include: weak psychological and professional readiness of teachers to implement inclusive practices; specifics of social and personal development of all children in a changed socio-cultural environment. It was revealed that on the threshold of school education, some modern children, even with healthy development, have a low level of social and communicative competence. This is expressed in the weakness of verbal regulation of actions, difficulties in communication, interaction, etc. We have proposed an intervention program for elementary school children with disabilities, which can be successfully introduced into the practice of educational organizations.

Keywords: Children with special educational needssocial and communicative competenciesaggressivenessconflicteducational processcollaborative activities

Introduction

At the present stage of the development of Russia, when transformations occur in all spheres of society, in particular, in the Russian education sphere, it is necessary to reconsider the process of education and training, to find new approaches to the implementation of educational activities. This is also due to the fact that its effectiveness and special assistance to children with disabilities remains low and does not satisfy the needs of both family and the state as a whole (Kukharchik, 2008).

Children with disabilities spend most of their time communicating with their own kind only; this fact significantly reduces their chances to successful adaptation in a social environment.

Problem Statement

The solution to this problem may be such a promising direction as inclusion. Inclusive education allows all students (including children with disabilities) to fully participate in all aspects of school community’s life. In the process of such education, children with disabilities experience a higher degree of progress in social development. The positive side of inclusive education is that it forms such social values ​​for all participants in the educational process as tolerance, mutual respect, mutual cooperation, self-awareness as a member of society. Inclusive education also gives a chance to develop humanistic skills and abilities, to teach each other and help both oneself and people around. But it should be noted that the process of including these children in mass educational institutions involves many difficulties (Meletichev, 2015).

Research Questions

Most children with disabilities have low cognitive activity, manifested in poor concentration, slow pace of task performance or complete lack of interest in them, apathy and indifference. For such children an emotional-volitional disorder is quite common. Sometimes it manifests itself in the form of irritation, increased emotional excitability, disinhibition, and in others as shyness, lethargy, and timidity. Elevated emotional excitability is often combined with whims and tearfulness. Inexperience, revealed in comments naivety, disorientation in practical and life issues result in difficulties in social adaptation and an increase in conflict situations (Antsupov, 2004).

Conflict is a social phenomenon that is natural for such an active society, as an educational institution of the 21^st century.

Purpose of the Study

In the course of professional activity, a teacher must take into account individual, age, and psychological characteristics of child’s personality, a social situation of his/her development, and also know child’s social environment (interests, family, leisure, etc.).

Conflict behavior of children with disabilities is aggravated by the presence of a defect. Children with disabilities perceive themselves critically. Therefore, it is difficult for them to experience positive emotions towards others. For this reason, they cannot understand the opinions of others, and this is the basis of aggressive behavior and conflicts (Fopel, 1998).

Most children show aggressive behavior in dealing with classmates, humiliate personal dignity, responding to antisocial behavior of peers, which exacerbates the situation: mutual confrontation, constant conflicts and emotional rejection cause physical, indirect and verbal aggression to their peers.

Research Methods

For evening out the aggressive and conflict behavior of elementary school children, we have developed a training program for the correction of conflict behavior of elementary school children “Formation of correct behavior of elementary school children with special educational needs”. Lessons of this program are aimed at reducing anxiety and increasing self-confidence, thanks to the development of self-regulation skills, an adequate response during group interaction and increasing self-esteem of pupils.

The program is intended to form correct behavior, master communication skills, develop the ability to control own behavior in conflict and other stressful situations.

Findings

A positive result of psycho-correction of schoolchildren behavior disorder can only be obtained by purposeful work on the proposed program.

The program includes 6 blocks:

Block 1 – “Me and my feelings” (7 lessons)

Block 2 – “Who am I?” (3 lessons)

Block 3 – “How to cope with anger?” (6 lessons)

Block 4 – “Me and Them” (7 lessons)

Block 5 – “I will become kind” (5 lessons)

Block 6 – Final Lesson

The program is designed for schoolchildren of 7-10 years old, i.e. pupils of 1-4 grades.

The special education program aims to reduce the level of conflict, to teach children to understand their own mood and attitude of their peers.

To achieve this goal, the following tasks were set:

• Reduce anxiety and aggressiveness of children during adaptation and during the study;

• Harmonize the levels of basic emotional regulation:

  • learn how to control emotions;

  • develop performance incoordination skills;

  • analyze own internal state and the state of others;

• Teach children verbal communication, the ability to conduct a constructive dialogue and resolve conflicts;

• Develop higher mental processes (memory, attention, thinking, perception, imagination) during the communicative activity of children;

• Form the skills and habits of voluntary movements based on the development of psychomotor activity.

The solution of these tasks is achieved through the direct impact on the main areas of personality:

Means for the implementation of tasks are as follows:

Since children with disabilities are distinguished by characteristics of voluntary attention, in this program dynamic activities are replaced by passive ones (conversations are replaced by active games; dramatization games by drawing, etc.).

It is advisable to conduct lessons with the entire class, so children will be able to observe both positive and negative examples. Expected results:

• decrease in the level of aggression;

• development of skills of understanding people’s feelings.

Before the start of classes, children should be introduced to certain rules of behavior in training groups:

• voluntary participation in training sessions;

• talk only about one’s own feelings, concisely and specifically;

• respect other people’s opinions and listen to peers, without interrupting;

• criticize not an individual, but only his or her action; be benevolent, no physical abuse.

The structure of lessons of the special education program is approximately the same. It consists of:

• Warming up (greeting);

• Main part (playing various traumatic situations, negative experiences, formation of an adequate way of emotional reaction; conversations, exercises, outdoor games, motor development games and cooperation with others, dramatization games). The main goal is to harmonize the levels of emotional control and reduce the level of aggressive behavior;

• Final part (reflection).

Program content:

Block 1 “Me and my feelings”

The purpose of this block is to form an idea of ​​feelings, facial expressions and emotional states.

Lesson 1. “Recognition of the emotional state of people on pictograms”

• Greetings

• Lesson goal announcement

• Get familiar with pictograms - emoticons

• Emotions recognition exercise

Purpose of the game: train skills of recognizing emotional states by facial expressions.

• Filling in the “mood diary”

A notebook (diary) is kept for each child, where at each lesson a note about the child’s mood is made with symbols.

The purpose of keeping a diary: attention to the own mood, feelings, emotional state and the ability to express them in words.

• Summing up the lesson

• Relaxation exercise

• Reflection

Lesson 2. “Training of expressive facial expressions”

• Greetings

• Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

• Filling in the “mood diary”

• Relaxation exercise “Lemon”

Purpose of the exercise: removal of psycho-emotional stress, development of hands fine motor skills.

• The game “Mimic Gymnastics”

Purpose of the game: study facial expressions and related emotional states of a person.

• Summing up the lesson

• Relaxation exercise

• Reflection

Lesson 3. “Feelings and facial expressions”

• Greetings

• Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

• Filling in the “mood diary”

• Relaxation exercise “Lemon”

• Game “Guess it!”

Purpose of the game: train attention and ability to track the state of a person through pantomimicry and facial expressions.

• Summing up the lesson

• Relaxation exercise

• Reflection

Lesson 4. “My feelings”

• Greetings

• Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

• Filling in the “mood diary”

• Relaxation exercise “Lemon”

• Game “The Magic Pouch”

Purpose of the game: realize own emotional state and free oneself from negative emotions.

• Summing up the lesson

• Relaxation exercise

• Reflection

Lesson 5. “Picture of our feelings”

• Greetings

• Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

• Filling in the “mood diary”

• Relaxation exercise “Move the stone”

Purpose of the exercise: removal of psycho-emotional stress and reset negative emotions.

• Drawing

Purpose : depict own emotional state with the help of finger-drawing techniques

• Summing up the lesson

• Reflection

Lesson 6. “Music and feelings”

• Greetings

• Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

• Filling in the “mood diary”

• Relaxation exercise “Move the stone”

• Listening to and describing the music

Purpose : development of imaginative thinking and understanding of the emotional state transfer.

• Drawing “Music Mood”

Purpose : form the ability to express one’s feelings and impressions through drawing, color.

• Summing up the lesson

• Reflection

Lesson 7. “Ways to improve the mood”

• Greetings

• Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

• Filling in the “mood diary”

• Relaxation exercise “Turtle”

Purpose of the exercise: relax the torso and body muscles.

• Conversation “Ways to improve the mood”

Purpose of the conversation: develop an ability to lift oneself up in the simplest ways.

• Summing up the lesson

• Relaxation exercise

• Reflection

Block 2 “Who am I?”

The purpose of this block is to assist in the study of own “self”

Lesson 1. “Psychological self-portrait”

• Greetings

• Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

• Filling in the “mood diary”

• Relaxation exercise “Turtle”

• Exercise “Psychological self-portrait”

Purpose of the exercise: help children to understand the positive and negative aspects of their own “self”

• Summing up the lesson

• Reflection

Lesson 2. “Who am I?”

• Greetings

• Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

• Filling in the “mood diary”

• Relaxation exercise “Relaxation in the pose of a starfish”

Purpose of the exercise: mastering the skills of self-regulation and maintaining an even emotional state.

• Exercise “Who am I?”

Purpose of the exercise: enable a child to look at him- or herself from different sides and expand the self-image.

• Summing up the lesson

• Reflection

Lesson 3. “Drawing of own “Self”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Drawing of the own “self”

Purpose: draw the attention of a child to him- or herself, experiences, feelings and increase self-confidence.

5. Summing up the lesson

6. Reflection

Block 3 “How to cope with anger?”

The purpose of this block is to acquaint students with the concept “anger”.

Lesson 1. “What situations make us angry?”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Relaxation exercise “Deer”

Purpose of the exercise: master and consolidate the posture of peace and relaxation of the hands muscles.

5. Conversation “What situations make us angry?”

Purpose of the conversation: socio - economic development of children, formation of a personality with positive character traits, help children in understanding what anger is and what evil deeds are.

6. Summing up the lesson

7. Reflection

Lesson 2. “Methods of expressing the anger”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Developmental exercise “Statue”

Purpose of the exercise: stimulate self-expression through symbols and images.

5. Exercises to release anger in a safe way

The purpose of the exercise is to gain knowledge about safe ways to release anger.

6. Summing up the lesson

7. Reflection

Lesson 3. “Movement and anger”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Exercise “Springs”

Purpose of the exercise: relax leg muscles.

5. Exercise in responding to anger through movement

Purpose of the exercise: teach children how to relieve anger, as well as to respond to a negative situation as a whole.

6. Summing up the lesson

7. Reflection

Lesson 4. “The image of my anger”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Modeling anger from plasticine

Purpose: development of hands fine motor skills, imagination, and figurative thinking; increase attentiveness.

5. Summing up the lesson

6. Reflection

Lesson 5. “Awareness of anger through sensory channels”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Relaxation exercise “Fairy dream”

Purpose of the exercise: teach children to voluntarily relax their muscles, calm down emotionally, and release accumulated fatigue and tension.

5. Exercises in realizing anger through sensory channels

Purpose of the exercises: modeling conflict situations and finding ways to solve them.

6. Summing up the lesson

7. Reflection

Lesson 6. “Managing the anger”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Role-playing game “STOP”

Purpose of the game: set certain rules that can help children control their anger.

5. Summing up the lesson

6. Reflection

Block 4. “Me and Them”

The purpose of this block is to teach children to understand the feelings and the mood of people around.

Lesson 1. “Biography on a photo”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Exercise “Pass the ball”

Purpose of the game: development of the ability to perform movements rhythmically, consistently with the words, and the signal.

5. Exercise “Biography on a photo”

Purpose of the exercise: develop sensitivity to the other people’s feelings.

6. Summing up the lesson

7. Reflection

Lesson 2. Discussion “What is kindness?”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”.

4. Relaxation exercise “Fist”

Purpose of the exercise: master and consolidate the posture of peace and relaxation of the hands muscles.

5. Discussion “What is kindness?”

Purpose of the discussion: formulate together with children the rules of raising human qualities that contribute to effective communication. Learn the rules of kindness.

6. Summing up the lesson

7. Reflection

Lesson 3. Discussion “What is politeness?”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Discussion “What is politeness?”

Purpose of the discussion: formulate together with children the rules of raising human qualities that contribute to effective communication. Learn the rules of politeness.

5. Role-playing game “Hospital”

Purpose of the game: develop the ability to apply in the game the previously acquired knowledge about the outside world.

6. Summing up the lesson

7. Reflection

Lesson 4. “Me and my family”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Discussion “Respect and love for parents”

Purpose of the discussion: develop in child’s personality the ability to see the warmth of relationships in a family, cultivate self-respect, respect for family, and responsible attitude to parents.

5. Summing up the lessons

6. Reflection

Lesson 5. “Family conflicts”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Playing situations “Adult - Child”

Purpose: formation of skills of modification and behavior correction based on the analysis of the roles being played out and group analysis of behavior.

5. Summing up the lesson

6. Reflection

Lesson 6. “Me and my friends”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Playing situations “Child - Child”

Purpose: formation of skills of modification and behavior correction based on the analysis of the roles being played out and group analysis of behavior.

5. Reflection

Lesson 7. Role-playing game “Aggressor and victim”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Relaxation exercise “Fist”

5. Role-playing game “Aggressor and victim”

Purpose of the game: develop strategies for resolving conflicts from the perspective of different sides

6. Summing up the lesson

7. Reflection

Block 5 “I will become kind”

The purpose of this block is to defuse aggression, relieve emotional and muscular tension.

Lesson 1. “Reconstruction of a positive image through childhood memories”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Mimic gymnastics

5. Exercise “Hot chair”

Purpose of the exercise: provide children with an opportunity to get to know each other better and to practice asking questions within a group context.

6. Summing up the lessons

7. Reflection

Lesson 2. Game “I like you for ...”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Relaxation exercise “Lemon”

5. Game “I like you for ...”

Purpose of the game: show children the ability to see good in themselves and in others.

6. Summing up the lesson

7. Reflection

Lesson 3. Game “Who is more beautiful?”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to dispose schoolchildren to positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Relaxation exercise “Move the stone”

5. Game “Who is more beautiful?”

Purpose of the game: form a non-perception of aggressive states; show that the use of force is the least attractive. People who behave aggressively look ridiculous.

6. Summing up the lessons

7. Reflection

Lesson 4. Game “Island of fighters”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to set up schoolchildren for positive emotions

3. Filling in the “mood diary”

4. Exercise “Non-wisher”

Purpose of the exercise: defuse aggressiveness, relieve emotional and muscular tension, develop a sense of humor and liberate.

5. Game “Island of fighters”

Purpose of the game: correction of aggressive behavior.

6. Summing up the lessons

7. Reflection

Lesson 5. Game “Quarrel and friendship”

1. Greetings

2. Work with emoticons to set up schoolchildren for positive emotions

3. Filling the “mood diary”

4. Exercise “Competition braggers”

Purpose of the exercise: increase self-esteem and develop a sense of empathy.

5. Game “Quarrel and friendship”

Purpose of the game: prevention of aggressive behavior.

6. Summing up the lesson

7. Reflection

Block 6. Final lesson

1. Greetings

2. Group drawing “The world around us”

Purpose: development of observation and analytical capabilities through watching; formation of a poetic vision of the world.

3. Reflection

The duration of lessons is 45 minutes each; a longer duration can lead to a decrease in work productivity. Lessons are given 2 times a week. If you reduce the frequency of meetings, this will adversely affect the effectiveness of classes.

The program includes 29 lessons. They have almost the same structure, except for the main part. Each lesson teaches children new techniques of emotional control.

Conclusion

One of the basic principles of special education is that (regardless of the developmental option) any child can understand the surrounding world, master the age-specific activities and social forms of behavior (Samoukina, 1997).

The problem is that children cannot accomplish this in the ways that are accessible to “typical” children. For this purpose, special psychological and pedagogical conditions must be created. It should be noted that special education activity does not come down to simplification of the learning content, but consists in finding those adequate means, types of psychological tools, and methodological techniques that can allow each child with special needs to master the basic human properties (thinking, speech, activities, social forms of behavior) despite the problems.

Summing up the special education work on the program “Formation of correct behavior of elementary schoolchildren with special educational needs”, we can conclude that children have learned to:

• restrain negative emotions (through self-control, socially acceptable resolution of conflict situations, outplaying fears);

• develop fine motor skills of hands, attention, coordination and expressiveness of movements, imagination, observation and speed of reactions;

• relieve tension (through skills of physical interaction and reflection).

References

• Antsupov, A. Ya. (2004). Conflict prevention in a school team. Moscow: VLADOS.
• Fopel, K. (1998). How to teach children to cooperate? Psychological games and exercises. Moscow: Genesis.
• Kukharchik, P. D. (2008). Problems of training teachers for inclusive education in the Republic of Belarus. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Inclusive Education: Problems of Improving Educational Policy and Systems (pp. 55-57). St. Petersburg: Publ. House of the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia.
• Meletichev, V. V. (2015). Conflicts in an educational institution: psychological foundations, causes, prevention, and resolution: study guide. St. Petersburg: SPb APPO.
• Samoukina, N. (1997). Practical psychologist at school: Lectures, counseling, training. Moscow: INTOR.