Who is a defectologist
A defectologist is a correctional teacher who works with children with developmental disabilities. Despite the fact that the science of defectology developed at the intersection of medicine and pedagogy, this specialist is not a doctor. He is a special education teacher, and his main task is teaching and raising children with disabilities (disabilities).
Workers of this profile can be found not only in kindergartens and schools. They can be found in rehabilitation and social centers and clinics. He can work both with a specific child and with a group.
Defectology includes several branches:
- Oligophrenopedagogy - work with intellectual disabilities (mental retardation, mental retardation);
- Deaf pedagogy - work with hearing problems;
- Typhlopedagogy - work with visual impairments;
- Speech therapy - work with speech disorders.
The work of a defectologist in a kindergarten is very diverse and depends on specific disorders. You will rarely find this specialist in a regular school - he works in specialized schools for children with developmental disabilities. The school usually only has a speech therapist who deals with children with speech disorders.
Another important aspect of the work of a defectologist is the instillation of social and everyday skills. A child with intellectual disability does not adapt well to life, and blind people cannot navigate in space. A correctional teacher is called upon to help cope with this.
How important is parental involvement?
According to the teacher-defectologist, the success of speech therapy depends on all participants in the correction process: teachers, parents and other family members, sometimes even a teacher-psychologist.
“Classes with parents are based on advisory and correctional assistance, which makes it possible to explain something to parents, teach them some techniques so that they can consolidate what they have learned at home with the child,” emphasized I. Kunevich.
Photo: vospitanie.guru
What kind of work does he do with children?
Teaches, educates, introduces them to the world around them, and more - this is what a defectologist does with children. This is not the most complete list of activities. They depend on the type of violation. The overall goal is to develop motivation for learning.
At the first stage, the teacher-defectologist conducts an examination. It affects all aspects of development. It is checked how children make contact, how they react, and what their pace of work is. Thinking, understanding of instructions, visual and auditory perception are examined.
Based on the results obtained, the teacher divides the children into groups. Pupils in them have approximately the same level of development. It is not possible to conduct group lessons with some children: autistic people fall into this category; these children are more often assigned to individual lessons due to the specific nature of this developmental disorder.
Classes are conducted in several directions:
- At the first stage, familiarization with the surrounding world is carried out. Ideas about it and its laws are formed. They develop attentiveness and responsibility for their actions.
- The second stage is the development of elementary mathematical concepts. During classes, the defectologist talks about the size, shape of objects and other characteristics.
Much attention is paid to sensorimotor development. Separate work is being carried out on the development of sensations. For this purpose, finger pools are made with various cereals and small toys. It is useful to prepare aromatic food, study vegetables, fruits, berries, touch them, examine them with your fingers. All this helps children develop different sensations.
Children with mental retardation have problems with games. It is difficult for them to contact someone and follow the rules. Therefore, they need the help of a speech pathologist. He competently guides the actions of his students and helps them find a common language with each other.
Consultations for parents are also indispensable. A defectologist can answer all their questions, give advice and help cope with the child’s problems.
"It became easier"
A ten-year-old disabled child with SMDD was admitted to school. I had not visited child care institutions before. He has severe intellectual and other developmental disabilities. Initial communication skills have not been formed, does not speak, behavior is inadequate, does not understand instructions and drawings, and many elementary concepts have not been formed.
A school schedule convenient for the child was agreed with the parents. Classes were conducted individually with a high degree of involvement of the mother. Almost every lesson for a speech pathologist is open. The individual form of classes allows you to select effective approaches, take into account as much as possible the characteristics of students with SMDD, and create a situation of success for each child. This increases their motivation to learn and cognitive activity.
After six months of correctional and developmental classes and home exercises, positive development dynamics appeared. During the next examination, the neurologist remarked: “What’s wrong with the child? A meaningful look and normal behavior appeared.” A year later, the student began to speak, work with simple cards, and follow instructions.
Mom about the result of classes with a speech pathologist: “It has become easier at home and in public places, now you can go to the store with him.”
Among the children and adults around him at school, at the beginning, there was fear and misunderstanding. Now relations have changed to tolerant and friendly. They communicate with the child and shake hands.
There are no uneducable children. Any child can be helped to advance in development.
Examples of working methods
The educational process is based on the characteristics of the disorder. For example, with hearing problems, oral speech decays. This is especially true for preschool age, since during this period there is an active formation of speech.
Hearing loss and lack of normal communication lead to the baby becoming silent. In the absence of proper correctional support, he loses the skill forever. Later he is taught sign language, but this greatly limits his ability to integrate into society.
Adaptation to real life is what a defectologist does in kindergarten and school. The teacher of the deaf focuses on the development of oral speech. The typhlopedagogue has to teach in a slightly different way. Its main task is the development of social and everyday skills. It is important to teach ideas about the world around us, to teach students to perceive the world “through their fingers.”
For this purpose, special voluminous books are created. They are made of different materials and depict: buildings, streets, animals, plants. All this allows students with visual impairments to form ideas about the world around them.
It is important to instill self-care skills, since sometimes parents do not allow their child to do this, depriving him of the chance for an independent life. Closer to school, preparation for mastering Braille begins. This is a raised dot pattern, which is analogous to regular writing. The blind perceive it through their fingers and read what is written.
Oligophrenopedagogues work with children with intellectual disabilities. This is mental retardation and mental retardation. Working with such students is based on the development of thinking. They are also taught self-service and communication skills. Children with mild mental retardation are taught to work.
WORK OF A SPECIFIC DEFECTOLOGIST TEACHER IN SCHOOL UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF THE FSES. Consultation on the topic
Work of a teacher-defectologist at MBOU school No. 8 under the conditions of the Federal State Educational Standard.
The material was prepared by a teacher-defectologist MBOU
School No. 8 Kravchenko Anton Sergeevich.
The level of civilization of a society is largely determined by its attitude towards children with disabilities and the fact that updated requirements for the content of educational activities for this category of students have appeared in the context of the implementation of the Federal State Educational Standard already indicates that we live in a civil society, which has a future.
The Federal State Educational Standard presupposes the creation in each educational institution of special conditions that ensure the correction and overcoming (complete or partial) of violations in the development of younger schoolchildren. Specialists must create these conditions and carry out qualified correction in an educational institution: a teacher - defectologist, a speech therapist and a psychologist.
A teacher-defectologist is not the most common profession, but unfortunately, it is increasingly in demand. Who is a defectologist teacher and what does he do with students in a secondary school?
The purpose of the activity of a teacher-defectologist is:
- in providing timely specialized assistance to students with disabilities who experience learning difficulties - in their mastering the mandatory minimum content of education in a public school setting
- in providing assistance to children with a low level of school motivation to obtain an education comparable in terms of final achievements at the time of completion of training with the education of students who do not have problems in mastering the educational program.
The recipients of help from a teacher-defectologist are children with disabilities and children with a low level of school motivation:
- The category of children with disabilities includes children whose health condition prevents them from mastering educational programs of general education outside of special conditions of education and upbringing, i.e. These are disabled children or other children under the age of 18 who are not recognized in the established order as disabled children, but who have temporary or permanent deviations in physical and (or) mental development and need to create special conditions for education and upbringing.
- The category of children with a low level of school motivation includes children:
with intact intelligence, but having problems in mastering the school educational program due to impaired cognitive / mental processes: impaired memory, attention, perception, sensorimotor coordination, spatial concepts and a decrease in the level of mental activity).
I would like to dwell in more detail on the category of children with a low level of school motivation, who are psychophysiologically not ready for school education, who do not want to engage in intellectual activity and who need correctional help from specialists - psychologists, speech therapists, and speech therapists. If these children do not receive specialized help, then various difficulties naturally arise in their education, leading to fairly persistent school maladjustment. Both teachers and parents know for sure: if a student does not love school by the third grade, he will never love it, the child will not begin to enjoy intellectual efforts and achieved results - the entire period of primary school will be missed for the formation of active cognitive activity, for the development of cognitive interests . Fortunately, there is a period of primary schooling (from 7 to 11 years), during which the child is given a certain development potential by nature. It must be used fully and in a timely manner by attending classes of a defectologist teacher, otherwise the sensitive period of development of a particular mental function will be missed.
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Children with disabilities and children with a low level of school motivation may have physical and (or) mental development disorders of different nature and severity, ranging from temporary and easily remediable difficulties to permanent deviations that require an individual training program adapted to their capabilities or the use of special educational programs.
Thus, we are talking about a wide range of students, some of whom have a developmental problem that can be solved by one specialist, for example, a speech therapist, while others require the help of a number of specialists to solve it: a speech pathologist teacher, a psychologist, and an important factor here is are special training conditions and extended periods of correctional work.
The activities of a teacher-defectologist at school are aimed at solving the problems of teaching children whose difficulties are persistent and require prolonged observation and specialized assistance at different age stages (including situations where the child received long-term specialized assistance at an early age and preschool period).
The correctional pedagogical work of a defectologist, based on the principles of correctional pedagogy, is built taking into account the age and individual characteristics of students, in accordance with the structure and nature of the disorders, their impact on educational activities and the overall development of the child.
The standard takes into account the educational needs of children with disabilities and children with a low level of school motivation; it assumes the creation of special conditions in an educational institution for their learning and development, ensuring the correction and overcoming (complete or partial) of violations in the child’s development.
Currently, MBOU school No. 8 of the Kineshma city district is creating special conditions that make it possible to provide variable forms of education to children with disabilities and children with a low level of school motivation in accordance with their characteristics and the public’s request for educational services.
Parents (legal representatives) are given the right to choose the form of education at Municipal Budgetary Educational Institution School No. 8. Inclusive practices and integrated education are becoming widespread, providing an opportunity for the successful appropriation of cultural experience by each child, taking into account his age characteristics, internal resources, health status and individual capabilities.
Integration processes involve a variety of variable forms of including children with disabilities and children with a low level of school motivation in the educational process of MBOU school No. 8:
MBOU school No. 8 provides for the following types and forms of integration of children with disabilities. The forms presented below are determined in accordance with the general level of readiness of the child for socio-educational integration: permanent, combined, partial, temporary.
Full integration - this form of integration is used for children who, in the conditions of a compensatory preschool educational institution, have reached the level of psychophysical development of the age norm, as well as children with a low level of school motivation. In this form, children are taught in general education classes on a general basis and, if necessary, receive help from specialists in the form of additional extracurricular activities.
Partial integration - this form of integration is used for children experiencing persistent learning difficulties and receiving education in a special (correctional) class or compensatory education class. With this form of integration, students are included in a single educational space with normally developing schoolchildren; they are involved in all school-wide educational and training activities on an equal basis with students in general education classes. This form is also used for children in individual education, who can attend separate lessons in the class together with the main group of students.
Temporary integration - this form of integration is used for children who are home-schooled, in which students with disabilities have the opportunity to socially communicate with healthy peers (participation in extracurricular educational activities, in general school activities).
Combined integration - this form of integration is considered as the inclusion of a child with disabilities in a general education class, providing him with qualified assistance from specialists and creating specialized learning conditions in accordance with his characteristics. With this form of integration, the educational process of a child with disabilities and children with a low level of school motivation is individualized in accordance with his special educational needs. Currently, this form of integration is more often considered as inclusion.
A teacher-defectologist in his work is based on a differentiated approach within the category of children with disabilities and children with a low level of school motivation in order to determine individually oriented methods of correctional work. At the same time, the very content of the correctional pedagogical work of a specialist is built on the basis of an integrated approach, which, first of all, involves ensuring interaction between participants implementing the correctional program of work with the child. Thus, a teacher-defectologist, through recommendations and consultations, includes parents, teachers, and, if necessary, the administration in the process of correctional education. The interaction of the defectologist with other specialists is mandatory, which is carried out within the framework of the school psychological, medical and pedagogical consultation.
This approach also provides for the implementation of a set of measures to ensure the effective conduct of individual and group classes. A teacher-defectologist not only conducts correctional classes, but also provides holistic correctional pedagogical (defectological) support in the form of observation of the education and upbringing of each student in need, which includes dynamic observation of the child’s development and assimilation of knowledge in accordance with the mandatory minimum content of education, advisory work with parents and teachers. Correctional pedagogical support is also necessary for those students in special (correctional) classes who do not need systematic lessons from a defectologist.
The main content of the activity of a teacher-defectologist is implemented in the following areas of work, providing an integrated approach to its organization: diagnostic and correctional. In addition to the traditional areas of work, analytical ones are additionally highlighted, which determines the interaction of specialists in the work, and also allows you to adjust the lesson program in accordance with the achievements of students.
Each of the areas in the specialist’s work has its own characteristics that ensure the satisfaction of the special educational needs of the category of students in question.
Diagnostic direction.
The purpose of the primary pedagogical examination (September-October of the current year) is to identify the difficulties in developing knowledge, skills and abilities in a student, to determine the stage at which these difficulties arose, and the conditions for overcoming them. To do this, the level of mental development of the child is studied, the level of actual and “zone of proximal development” is determined, the causes and mechanisms of learning difficulties are identified, children in need of specialized help are identified. Based on its results, the defectologist draws up an examination protocol and a defectological presentation for the student. Repeated diagnostics (May of the current year) is necessary to ascertain the effectiveness and determine the effectiveness of the corrective impact on the development of educational and cognitive activity of children attending classes with a defectologist.
Corrective direction.
The correctional direction of the work of a teacher-defectologist is a system of corrective influence on the educational and cognitive activity of a child in the dynamics of the educational process. Depending on the structure of the defect and the degree of its severity, the content of the correction work is determined.
The main form of organization of defectological work is subgroup and individual classes. Children with a homogeneous disorder structure are enrolled in groups. The number of children in groups varies depending on the severity of the disorder (from 2 to 6 people). Subgroup classes are held during hours free from lessons, taking into account the school’s operating hours.
Classes are correctional and developmental in orientation. The frequency and duration of classes depends on the severity and nature of the disorder, and the total load on the child is determined taking into account the work of other specialists with him.
The main tasks of correctional and developmental work include:
— formation of general intellectual skills (operations of analysis, comparison, generalization, identification of essential features and patterns, flexibility of thought processes);
— deepening and expanding students’ knowledge based on the interests and specifics of their abilities.
— formation and development of visual, figurative and logical thinking;
— development of attention (stability, concentration, expansion of volume, switching, etc.);
-development of memory (formation of memorization skills, stability, development of semantic memory);
— development of spatial perception and sensorimotor coordination;
— development of psychological prerequisites for mastering educational activities (the ability to copy a model, the ability to listen and hear the teacher, i.e. the ability to obey the teacher’s verbal instructions; the ability to take into account a given system of requirements in one’s work);
— development of speech and vocabulary of students;
- development of reaction speed.
— formation of positive motivation for learning.
- formation of adequate self-esteem, an objective attitude of the child towards himself and his qualities;
— developing the ability to work in a group (in subgroup and paired classes).
A feature of correctional classes is the use of special techniques and methods by the defectologist to ensure the satisfaction of the special educational needs of children, providing students with dosed assistance, which allows for maximum individualization of the correctional process. An important result of the classes is the transfer of the skills and abilities developed during them into the child’s educational work, therefore, it is necessary to link the specialist’s correctional programs with the program educational material.
The main time in the correctional work of a teacher-defectologist is allocated to classes with children of primary school age. However, classes can also be conducted with students in grades 5–9 - with those schoolchildren who have already attended classes with a defectologist, but due to the persistence of the disorder (a pronounced form of mental retardation of cerebral-organic origin) need continued correctional work. Preference in correctional work is given to the formation of methods of mental activity and methods of educational work of students based on the material of various academic disciplines. We are talking about the formation of “broad” techniques that are used in the lesson regardless of the field of knowledge and are interdisciplinary in nature. These include techniques such as examining an object from different points of view, logical processing of text, highlighting the main meaning of the context, concise retelling, etc.
Analytical direction.
Analytical direction - involves analyzing the process of corrective influence on the development of a student and assessing its effectiveness, as well as analyzing and assessing the interaction of all school specialists.
The need for this area of activity of a defectologist is due to the need for an integrated approach to solving a child’s problems, which involves:
1) a systematic analysis of the personal and cognitive development of the child, which allows not only to identify individual manifestations of mental development disorders of the student, but also to determine the causes of the violation, to trace their relationship and mutual influence on each other;
2) creation of comprehensive individual correctional and developmental programs aimed at the interconnected development and correction of various aspects of the child’s personal and cognitive development;
3) providing specialized support for the training and education of students. Depending on the underlying developmental disorder, each child may be supervised by one or another specialist who ensures the interaction of those specialists whose help the child needs;
4) prevention of student overload. Corrective work of specialists should be planned taking into account the total load on the student;
5) interaction of specialists within the school psychological, medical and pedagogical consultation.
Kineshma, MBOU school No. 8, March 2021.
Problems of defectology
In modern conditions, not all persons with disabilities receive assistance. There are children with a complex structure of the defect, for example, deaf-blind. Until the last century, they were all considered unteachable, until the famous American teacher Anne Sullivan showed an example of teaching such a child. It is her photograph that is the title of this article.
Her student, Helen Keller, lost the ability to hear and see after a serious illness. The girl's fate was unenviable - an orphanage. But Sullivan has proven that it can be adapted to society. Keller became an activist, writer, and lecturer. Her activities were widely publicized in society. However, in the modern world, teaching such children is associated with a number of difficulties.
The increased number of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) requires speech pathologists to develop new training programs. In the last century they were considered mentally retarded, but modern research has refuted this. Work with such children should be aimed at developing communication skills.
To summarize, we can say that a defectologist carries out extremely complex, but very important work. Important for both the baby and his parents. This allows children to be socialized as much as possible in society.
Features of the profession
The specialist performs the duties of a psychologist and defectologist. It is important not only to correct the child’s intellectual abilities, but also to find the cause of their occurrence, which are conventionally divided into two types.
- Physical: congenital pathologies of the brain, nervous system, hearing, vision.
- Psychological: problems associated with upbringing, psychological trauma.
A feature of defectology is that all children are subject to correction, regardless of the cause of the existing disorders. For severe pathologies that cannot be treated, maintenance therapy is carried out.
In his work, a defectologist works closely with a psychologist. To increase the effectiveness of classes and the attractiveness of their candidacy on the labor market, teachers receive an additional specialty as a psychologist. This allows them to better understand children and create individual programs depending on the needs and developmental characteristics of the child.
Only a stress-resistant person who knows how to differentiate between work and personal life can work as a speech-language pathologist. Often patients are children from disadvantaged families with serious psychological problems. Such a child is difficult to treat and requires special attention and care.
Goals and objectives
A correctional psychologist-defectologist performs the following tasks:
- study of the child’s level of intelligence, characteristics of physical and mental development;
- development of an individual training program;
- development of memory, thinking, stimulation of brain activity;
- development of communication skills, elimination of stiffness, embarrassment;
- elimination of speech therapy problems, assistance in producing sounds;
- development of fine and gross motor skills;
- assistance in socializing the child, accepting the shortcomings of the body and mind;
- consultation of parents on issues of raising and educating a child.
The main goal of the specialist is to eliminate psychological barriers to intellectual development. To achieve this, joint work with parents is organized, which allows for a comprehensive approach to the problem.
To fulfill the assigned tasks, the teacher must be able to:
- quickly find a common language with the child, form trusting relationships with patients;
- find the patient’s weaknesses and causes of psychological disorders;
- teach reading and writing in non-traditional ways;
- work with children of different ages.
The work is difficult, but interesting. This profession is suitable only for those who sincerely love children and are ready to put up with the pranks and whims of little patients.
There are many other areas of work for psychologists.
