Socially integrative shifts. Tatyana Mikhailovna Ratynskaya social development of children in the conditions of a summer integrative camp. Integration of children with severe mental disorders
Explanatory note
Most people in Russia still experience fear, and sometimes even hostility, towards people with serious mental disorders, which is due to a lack of understanding of their behavior and lack of experience communicating with such people. The lack of a tolerant and respectful attitude towards people with developmental disabilities and their families leads to their isolation from society, creates areas of increasing tension and possible aggression both from society and from the people with mental problems themselves.
Unfortunately, in our country there are disabled children with serious deviations in mental development (various communication and emotional-volitional disorders, severe mental retardation, psychopathy childhood etc.) are still virtually excluded from the state education system, do not have the opportunity to communicate with healthy peers and, as a rule, do not receive any help other than medical care. Despite the fact that more and more correctional centers and schools for special children are now appearing, many of them are forced to constantly stay at home and communicate only with members of their family. All this aggravates the problems associated with the socialization of children with mental development disorders.
For a child with severe mental and intellectual disabilities, socialization is a complex, complex process. The characteristics of such a person introduce serious distortions into the passage of each stage of his life. Difficulties in socialization usually consist of the inability to independently organize one’s participation in the life of society. In addition, his behavior does not fit into the standard framework, is incomprehensible to others and is not accepted by them. That is why the socialization and integration of such people in society requires the development and organization of a well-thought-out system of special measures and serious efforts of professionals.
As foreign experience shows, the process of integration into society of special children and, in particular, children with serious mental development disorders, is impossible without the integration of the family with such a child into society. To do this, parents must first of all have certain knowledge in the field of law, psychology and pedagogy, and in order to obtain this knowledge, funds, specialists, place and time are needed. However, the existing system of assistance to special children in our country does not provide information support for parents. Survey data show that parents of children with severe mental disorders are incompetent in organizing an adequate living environment for their child, do not know how to promote the development of skills in daily life activities, and do not understand the variety of proposed rehabilitation technologies. Parents also lack knowledge about their rights to adequate medical care and social support.
The family itself, raising a child with developmental disorders, often finds itself isolated from society, friendships are disrupted, parents lose their jobs, and do not have the opportunity to take a break from everyday worries associated with caring for the child. Parents of special children live in a situation of chronic stress, in some cases with a deep sense of guilt and a sense of inferiority of their family, without the support of others, with a feeling of uncertainty about the future, often in a state of constant fatigue and depression. As a rule, they are doomed to professional and social deprivation. The situation is aggravated by the frequent breakup of such families, accompanied by the loss of the breadwinner and putting the family on the brink of poverty. And if help for special needs children exists at least somewhere, then the family rehabilitation service in our country is practically absent.
In this regard, it is quite obvious that specially organized rehabilitation measures are needed, aimed not only at the child with severe developmental disorders, but also at supporting families with such children, and, first of all, providing them with special socio-psychological assistance.
Rehabilitation of children with developmental disorders, as a rule, is carried out in correctional centers, i.e. in an environment that in itself is not similar or even close to normal society, although, of course, in such a specific environment it is possible to solve therapeutic and pedagogical problems. At the same time, there are tasks for which it is necessary to immerse special child in an environment close to ordinary society. These are, in particular, the tasks of social adaptation, which in other conditions cannot even be set.
The Center for Curative Pedagogy is trying to build such a teaching and educational environment, as close as possible to the natural one, in a summer integrative camp.
Working closely with family is very important in order to improve performance pedagogical work with a special child. Often, the interaction of teachers and psychologists with parents of special children is built on hierarchical principles that do not imply partnership and participation of parents in the work of the teaching team. This leads to misunderstanding, and sometimes even devaluation by parents, of the changes occurring in the child’s development. Experience shows that the work of specialists and parents in one team based on partnerships significantly increases the effectiveness of correctional work.
The summer camp program is aimed at integrating children and adolescents with mental development disorders into a community of normal peers. An integrative environment is created in the conditions of a summer tent camp.
Families of children with severe developmental disabilities and families of specialists travel together outside the city. Children with disabilities find themselves in an environment of healthy peers, which consists of brothers and sisters of the Center’s students and children of employees, and get the opportunity to “fit in” to a regular large team. During the program, the Center's pupils gain very valuable experience in communicating with healthy children, new impulses for development, and increase their chances of adapting to normal social life. Ordinary children, acting here as “cotherapists,” are fostered to strive to understand and accept their “special” peers. At the same time, socio-psychological rehabilitation of families raising children with special needs is carried out.
In the camp it is possible to overcome many difficulties of social adaptation that are not solved by traditional pedagogical programs.
For children with developmental disorders:
– mastering everyday skills;
– solving problems with food;
– gaining experience of communication in various non-standard situations;
– the opportunity to contact ordinary children and adults;
– use of acquired during correctional classes skills in various real life situations.
For parents:
– opportunity to relax;
– the opportunity to see how other families with such children live, to learn a more objective assessment of your child;
– the opportunity to communicate with other parents;
– the opportunity to learn from specialists.
For children with typical development:
– an opportunity to meet special children, learn to accept them, understand the meaning of their behavior, learn to build relationships with them.
The therapeutic teacher, even in an informal setting, continues to be the main integrator of the children's, as well as mixed child-adult community. It is important that he does not take an “outside” position, but is an equal member of this community. A professional who is included “inside” the situation ensures that all children and adults are involved in various types of activities, gradually begin to “see”, feel and understand each other, actively and diversely interact with each other, and build diverse, multi-level relationships.
Thus, the line between ordinary and an unusual child. Children with disabilities gain the rare experience of being accepted into a community of normal, healthy children.
Conditions for the program
The summer camp should be located away from large cities, in a picturesque, environmentally friendly place, on the shore of a reservoir - a river or lake. There should be a forest nearby. It’s good if the terrain is varied in landscape and “rugged”: fields, meadows, copses, hills and ravines. It is necessary that populated areas be located within reach where provisions can be purchased and emergency medical care can be received if necessary.
The camp space should be well organized. There are several functional zones on the territory:
– living (sleeping) area – a group of tents for which they find a comfortable, level, protected from the sun place;
– dining room and kitchen;
– sports area;
– playground for younger children (swings, sandboxes, ladders, etc.);
– a clearing for round dance games;
– fire area, preferably protected by an awning;
– an open area for theatrical performances.
It’s good when there is at least a small indoor building on the camp site: you can place a kitchen, a dining room, a drying room, and a children’s playroom in it. This allows classes to be conducted in any weather, and also greatly facilitates the life of the camp residents.
Camping will require a lot of special equipment. Every family needs tents, sleeping bags, camping mats, and dishes.
The pedagogical process requires a variety of musical instruments (guitar, harp, flutes, bells, drum, tambourine, metallophone, xylophone), toys, books, plasticine, paints, paper, etc. To organize the work of circles, materials are needed (fabrics, threads, needles, paints, pencils, felt-tip pens, cardboard, colored paper, plasticine, glue, starch, clay, sand, etc.), dolls for performances, special literature.
For physical therapy exercises, you need balls, rings, a rope, mats, a trampoline, “tunnels,” etc. To make children’s recreation more varied, it is a good idea to bring pedal cars and children’s bicycles, a kayak, hammocks, and swings to the camp.
It is necessary to pay serious attention to establishing the economic life support of the camp. Before the start of the camp, preparatory work must be carried out: cleaning the territory, building the necessary auxiliary structures, etc.
Program Goals
1. Integration of children with disabilities mental development in a community of ordinary peers.
2. Social and psychological rehabilitation of families raising children with serious mental development disorders.
Program objectives
1. Integration of children with severe mental disorders:
– mastering social and everyday skills and self-service skills;
– solving emotional and volitional problems (reducing anxiety levels, getting rid of feelings of loneliness, emotional liberation, increasing self-esteem and motivation);
– improvement of motor skills;
– enriching the child’s social experience, teaching him communication skills with healthy peers;
– application in real life of the skills and knowledge acquired during classes at the Center;
– creating the most favorable conditions for the development of the creative potential of each child, taking into account his individual characteristics;
– providing complete health-improving rest.
2. Rehabilitation of families:
– development of partnerships between professionals and parents;
– establishing productive communication with other families raising special children;
– providing parents with information about the condition of their child, ways of interacting with him at home, methods of his development and education;
– helping parents understand (and often accept) their child; practical training of parents in proper interaction with him;
– psychological assistance and emotional support for family members raising children with serious developmental disabilities;
- providing parents with rest.
3. Adaptation of children with normal development:
– acquisition by ordinary children (brothers and sisters of children with developmental disabilities, children of specialists) of moral and psychological experience of communicating with unusual peers;
– nurturing in children kindness, sensitivity, and the ability to understand the needs of special children;
– nurturing children’s abilities for social creativity.
4. Professional growth of specialists:
– accumulation and comprehension of the experience of creating an integrative environment in a summer tent camp;
– improving skills in diagnosing family problem areas.
General information about the composition of the camp
The optimal number of participants in one camp session is approximately 50 people. Among them are 12–14 children with developmental disabilities, their parents, brothers and sisters, as well as teachers, psychologists, interns, volunteers and children of employees. In the teenage shift of the Center for Curative Pedagogy, there are slightly fewer participants, since teenagers travel without their parents.
Based on accumulated experience, such a numerical composition seems to us to be optimal specifically for a tent camp. Successful, not overly burdensome everyday functioning of the camp (purchasing and preparing food, cleaning, etc.) is combined in this case with the possibility of creating a cohesive, friendly team to establish the closest and most trusting, almost family-like, relationships between all participants. With this composition, it is possible to create favorable conditions for the socialization of special children, including those who have autism as one of the main or concomitant diagnoses.
The age of children with developmental disabilities who go to the camp is from 5 to 20 years. The group for one camp session is selected primarily by age: the younger (preschool) group includes children from 5 to 9 years old, the older (school) group - from 8 to 12 years, teenagers - from 12 to 20 years.
At the same time, children of the same shift are selected based on the similarity of the range of problems, although the level of severity of disorders and diagnoses may be different. Some parents find it helpful to see how severe other children's disabilities can be, while other parents may benefit from seeing the results of years of work by specialists in collaboration with parents.
When selecting, first of all, the motivation of the child’s family is taken into account, because preparing for the trip to the camp and staying there itself will require a lot of work: you need to find equipment and be prepared for various difficulties. As a rule, families with children who have been attending classes at the Center for quite a long time want to go to the camp. In this case, it is easier for the Center’s specialists to determine what tasks for each child can be set and solved in a camp setting. In addition, in this case, it is easier for teachers to prepare for the difficulties associated with a child’s stay in the camp (for example, it is well known about someone that he always runs away, etc.)
The general organization of work is headed by the head of the camp. He also leads the medical and pedagogical work. The professional team of the Center for Curative Pedagogy includes:
– teachers;
– psychologists;
– neuropsychologist;
– family psychologists;
– specialist in folklore;
– specialist in physical therapy;
– music therapist;
– art therapists;
– interns and volunteers.
For each child and his family, a plan is drawn up, taking into account the characteristics of the child and depending on the development tasks that the specialist solves. As a result, some activities (eg, camp duty, teaching table manners) may not be necessary.
Various forms of combination of group and individual work are used.
Shift duration is from 10 to 14 days.
Duration of classes:
1. Walks in the forest; correctional group and individual sessions(art therapy; movement therapy or physical therapy, music therapy, play therapy); classes in circles (clay modeling, doll workshop, drawing) – 2 hours.
2. Puppet show – 15 min.
3. Kitchen duty (except for teachers and parents - teenagers, brothers and sisters of children with developmental disabilities) - approximately 4 hours throughout the day.
4. Psychological support group for parents; conversations, lectures for parents; rehearsals for the big final performance – 1.5 hours.
5. Family individual counseling, individual play therapy of a specialist with a child, evening fire, food in the children's canteen, teacher's council - 1 hour.
6. Folklore games – 30 min.
7. Individual conversations with parents - from 15 minutes to 1 hour.
Frequency of classes:
1. Walks in the forest, classes in clubs, a puppet show, food in the children's canteen, a group of psychological support for parents, individual family counseling, individual play therapy, individual conversations with parents, teacher advice - daily.
2. Kitchen duty - usually once every three days (for each participant).
3. Rehearsals for the big final performance - every day for the last five days.
Content aspects of the program
Attached to each family responsible specialist. He accompanies the child on a joint walk without parents, helps him in classes in clubs, in the children's canteen, and works with parents. The task of the teacher responsible for the family is to involve the child and his family in common life. Often families, especially at the beginning of the shift, try to live in isolation and avoid general studies, are afraid of the first difficulties. The teacher helps parents understand that their child can do more than the parent is used to demanding from him. For example, in general round dancing games, children often first break free and run away, and parents, as a rule, do not interfere with them. The teacher again and again attracts the child and parent to stand in a circle. Gradually, the child’s participation in the round dance increases, and by the end of the shift, he enjoys participating in joint games, and if his capabilities allow, he chooses a game, goes out in a circle, and begins to communicate with other children. Thus, attaching a teacher to a specific family prevents anyone from “falling out” of common life, from the focus of teachers’ attention. Parents and their children actively participate in common life.
The camp cultivates the maximum variety of work forms. For example, in addition to traditional individual and group work, there is this form of work: parents go for a walk with other people’s children, accompanied by teachers, and this allows them to be in the shoes of another, to feel like a competent parent. The main principle is the variability of work forms and the flexibility of their application; the use of one form or another depending on the task being solved with a particular child. Corrective work is carried out during all classes.
It is important that the forms of work allow all members of the emerging team to interact with each other in an informal setting; it is better if they are involved in interesting activities. This could be a puppet show, competitions, walks, hikes, etc. It is necessary to create as many opportunities as possible for everyone to communicate with everyone: parents with each other, parents and teachers, children with each other and with other parents, with teachers. Activities are organized in such a way that everyone has the opportunity to express themselves, their talents, their creative potential. It is important that in joint activities attention is paid to everyone. So, in folk games Everyone leads a round dance, but the children take turns leading.
The core of work organization is daily regime, which immediately creates a feeling of predictability, security, and allows parents to plan their time. This reduces anxiety and relieves tension, which are inevitably high at the beginning of a shift. The daily schedule is structured so that parents have free time when children go for a walk or joint activities with specialists. And there is time that a parent spends with his child as he sees fit.
The work is carried out in several directions (this division is arbitrary, since in each lesson several tasks are solved at once).
Integration of children with developmental disabilities
1. Mastering everyday skills
All children who are allowed by their mental and physical development, participate in camp duty. In accordance with the schedule drawn up on the first day of the shift, daily duty attendants are assigned, whose responsibilities include assisting adults in preparing food, washing dishes, setting and cleaning tables, cleaning common areas, removing garbage, etc.
Participation in duty is considered by the Center's specialists as a serious educational and socializing factor. Usually at home, children with special needs are not burdened with helping their parents with housework. Since childhood, they have been protected from difficulties, they get used to such a situation, languish in inaction, but due to the stereotypical nature of their reactions, they do not show much zeal to make up for lost time. At the Center's workshop school for school year Teenagers are taught certain skills of helping with housework and mutual assistance: they are on duty in the kitchen, helping to set the table and clear away the dishes. The same skills are offered to be mastered in a feasible manner at the camp.
At a camp for preschoolers important part The pedagogical process is shared meals in a special children's canteen, where children without parents, under the guidance of teachers and volunteers, without relying on their mother, learn to handle cutlery, behave appropriately at a common table, not shout, choose one dish or another, carry dishes in a tray, etc. Many children, as it turns out, eat much better “for company” in the children's canteen than at home, where they can be capricious and refuse food. The child can learn to eat new types of food. Those children who ate only pureed food at home can learn to chew and swallow.
2. Solving emotional and volitional problems (reducing anxiety levels, getting rid of feelings of loneliness, “acting out” fears)
Individual and group play therapy occupies a significant place in therapeutic and pedagogical work. In particular, pre-prepared plot games are used (for example, a trip to the forest is organized to save a “beauty” stolen by a “monster”; in such “scary” games, emotional and volitional problems are solved, fears are “acted out”).
Joint traditional folk games, which children especially love, are effective psychological training.
3. Improving motor skills
The camp has all the conditions for intensive movement therapy classes. Physical therapy specialists have ample opportunities to diversify movement classes (compared to classes in a confined space during the rest of the year). For this purpose, not only sports equipment is used (balls, trampoline, “tunnel”, hoops, etc.), but also a variety of natural conditions: natural obstacles, water, sand, forest.
4. Enriching the child’s social experience, teaching him communication skills with healthy peers
Work in this area is carried out throughout the entire camp shift, during all classes. So, during walks together, children learn patience and mutual assistance, learn to wait and help each other. The factor of collective interaction during longer trips to the forest is of great importance: there is scope for children to show responsibility for each other and strive for effective mutual assistance. Folk games also have great socializing potential: the feeling of equal participation in a common cause is very important here. Involved in common life, with the constant support of the teacher, the child can change before our eyes, becoming interested and emotionally captivated by what is happening, begins to participate in the life of the team and acquire or improve existing communication skills.
5. Creating the most favorable conditions for the development of the creative potential of each child, taking into account his individual characteristics; increasing self-esteem and motivation
In every event held at the camp, children who have developed various areas psychophysical activity, can demonstrate their abilities and be successful. Classes are structured so that every child can become successful in something. This requires a wide variety of activities and games - both in content and form.
For example, children with Down syndrome have a very good sense of color - this is used in art classes. Children with autism have a well-developed imagination, often have phenomenal memory, they have the ability to strictly adhere to the rules and therefore can be successful in various games with rules. Hyperactive children are successful in physical education classes and in outdoor games; sedentary – in various types constructing from natural materials. In activities that require active verbal communication, children with well-developed speech are successful; in classes related to painstaking manual labor, children with delays often achieve success speech development. And since the experience of success is a strong socializing and integrating factor, creating conditions for this directly meets the main goals of the camp. As a result, children’s self-esteem increases, motivation and impulses for further development appear.
6. Providing complete health-improving recreation for children with developmental disorders
For this part of the program, the most important thing is to use the healing potential of various natural factors. Almost every day, weather permitting, there are hikes into the forest. Children get acquainted with nature, learn how to handle a fire and camping equipment, and overcome obstacles.
On the lake, the favorite pastime of all children without exception is swimming and boating. The gentle rhythmic rocking of a boat floating on a calm lake calms children well, helps them develop a sense of balance, and gently strengthens and trains the vestibular apparatus. Admiring the wonderful views of the spacious expanse of water and the shores of the lake develops a sense of space and gives children new, fresh sensations.
In manual activities, much attention is paid to clay modeling, drawing on the ground, working with sand, designing and building from natural materials.
Family rehabilitation
The conditions of a summer camp, where children, parents and teachers live and relax together, create favorable preconditions for conducting effective family psychotherapy. The atmosphere of a “common home”, for which a tent camp is very suitable for creating, helps ensure that when various difficulties arise, parents are not left alone with their problems, actively participate in joint activities, and feel the interest of specialists in helping their children. Specialists help family members gain experience interacting with a child in various life situations, and adequately communicate with others in these situations; contribute to the expansion of your child’s world and feel like full-fledged members of society. Family psychologists not only advise parents on issues of their family situation and relationship with the child, but also help other specialists establish relationships of mutual understanding and partnership with parents that contribute to solving the child’s main problems.
1. Development of partnerships between professionals and parents
At the summer camp, special meetings between parents and teachers take place daily. At these meetings, together with psychologists, the most worrying problems for parents are discussed, related both to a specific child, a specific problem, and to the life of the camp as a whole.
2. Providing parents with information about the condition of their child, ways of interacting with him at home, methods of his development and education
A variety of information is provided to parents by teachers and psychologists in individual conversations. Teachers talk about their child’s condition, ways of interacting with him at home, methods of his development and learning.
Parents are provided with qualified assistance in understanding (often accepting) their child; Practical training is provided for parents in the principles of constructive interaction with the child.
3. Psychological help, emotional support for family members
There is a parent support group at the camp. At group meetings (they take place in the morning, when the child is in class), all parents are present, as well as one or two family psychologists. Topics for classes in the psychological support group can be proposed by the parents themselves. These are the pressing problems that parents have found extremely difficult to solve alone.
For example, topics such as “Harmonization within family relations", "Interaction different generations in the family”, “Aggression and ways to overcome it”, “Teaching a child self-service skills”, “Developing rules of behavior in in public places", "On the prospects for the future life of a child with severe developmental disorders", and many others.
Information messages from foreign volunteers about the organization are of great interest social assistance disabled people in their countries, about the different types of residential homes for the disabled. The very important problem of school education for disabled children with severe mental disorders in Russia is also discussed.
Classes in a parental support group and consultations with psychologists contribute to the emotional and psychological rehabilitation of a family with a special child, allowing them to get rid of the painful feeling of inferiority of their own family, feelings of loneliness and failure.
The camp situation itself helps to get rid of the usual stereotypes of communicating with the child. When communicating with other families, parents can see their children from the outside, “in a new light.” This is a very important experience for parents, as a result of which their relationship with the child is harmonized. If previously these were often symbiotic relationships, now it is possible to build more age-appropriate relationships. Parents begin to participate more actively in the general life of the camp and are more optimistic about the future. Because of this, the parent allows himself to be happy, and his sense of guilt decreases.
One of the forms of socio-psychological rehabilitation of families is the involvement of parents in the work of creative circles. At the camp, parents can show their creativity in puppet and dramatic performances, clay modeling, dancing and singing, etc. All interested children and adults are invited to join the clubs. Often parents get carried away and discover new interesting forms of creativity. This gives them strength and becomes an additional resource. During the creative process, parents directly communicate with each other and with teachers.
4. Opportunity for parents to relax
Often, only at camp does a parent have the opportunity to forget about their constant problems and fully relax. The opportunity to hand over the child to friendly and reliable people for at least a few hours a day or to share care of the child with them allows parents to return to social life, pay at least a little attention to their own needs, feel support, and get rid of the feeling of loneliness. The camp has conditions for various forms parents' holiday. For example, they can dance in a dance club class, and when the child falls asleep, sit by the fire or go fishing.
In folk games, parents have a rare opportunity to participate “on an equal footing” with their child in a collective “action”; “stressed” parents are liberated, a sense of community arises, and the feeling of isolation so inherent in these families disappears. Kitchen and camp duty also provides an opportunity for parents to take a break from childcare responsibilities.
Adaptation of healthy children
Brothers and sisters of special children, children of specialists play one of the central roles in the work of the camp: after all, they create the core of the team into which the special child learns to integrate. The task of establishing full-fledged relationships between children with developmental disabilities and ordinary children becomes paramount. It should be taken into account here that communication with healthy peers is a vital and very scarce experience for most children with severe mental disorders.
The experience of the Center for Curative Pedagogy, as well as the work of integrative educational institutions created by it and transferred to the state education system educational institutions, clearly showed that a competent connection in a single community ( kindergarten, group, class, camp) for such different children, with the right approach, turns out to be extremely beneficial for both. Weak children follow the strong ones, the strong help the weaker, and together they gain invaluable moral experience and experience of social adaptation, and acquire the ability for social creativity.
Main results of the camp
1
Children with developmental disabilities who participate in the camp undergo rehabilitation in unusual, sometimes extreme, natural conditions, as a result of which they will gain many new impressions, and with them - new development impulses. This certainly has a positive effect on their emotional and psychophysical state.
2
Finding themselves in a situation where the entire life of the group (including food, sleep, activities and entertainment) is subject to certain laws, special children naturally perceive these laws, which is an important step towards socialization. The practice of the camps has shown that in this way many problems are solved that parents cannot solve in normal family life.
3
Children with developmental disorders, having been in a qualitatively new social environment for the first time, will receive a rich, varied, invaluable communication experience with many new people, both adults and their peers, will significantly expand the circle of their social connections. The warm, friendly atmosphere of the camp and the high degree of cohesion of the entire team create for the child a feeling of security and safety in the social environment.
4
In a camp situation with the support of teachers, children, as a rule, successfully master new skills for yourself. They manage to instill a number of rules of hygiene and behavior at a common table, establish a diet, teach how to chew and swallow, organize sleep, etc.
5
In the camp they open up creative possibilities each child, children’s self-esteem increases, motivation for further development appears, independence, a sense of responsibility and independence are formed.
6
Parents, having received new knowledge, become more competent, often switch to higher level of communication with children. They begin to treat their child differently, to “accept” him, which certainly contributes to the successful solution of his problems.
7
The experience of interaction in a camp allows parents overcome self-isolation and expand the circle of communication, improves the emotional and psychological climate within the family.
8
Parents get powerful social impulse, which helps to overcome the social and communicative deprivation that occurs in families. After the camp, parents often become more active and begin to work together to solve socially important problems. Using experience psychological trainings, parents become able to conduct a more meaningful and reasoned dialogue with authorities, acting as defenders of the rights of their children.
9
Healthy children gain new experience of communicating with peers with developmental disabilities, learn to treat appropriately to such people and will subsequently be able to avoid influence negative attitude society to a special child. Brothers and sisters of special children receive psychological support. This experience is difficult to overestimate: after all, children often see examples of intolerant, unkind attitude towards a child with severe developmental disorders.
10
In the process of close communication with the families of their students, teachers and psychologists will be able to solve a number of diagnostic problems, necessary for further successful therapeutic and pedagogical work with children. After all, the roots of a child’s problems often lie in family problems. It is through such informal communication that it is often possible to take the most effective steps towards solving child development problems.
11
Staying at the camp is beneficial for interns and volunteers. By helping specialists and assisting in classes, they gain valuable experience, learn professional work and integrate into the professional community.
Literature
1. Zhukov E. S., Karvasarskaya I. B., Martsinkevich N. E., Pokrovskaya S. V. Practical recommendations on socio-psychological adaptation of children with severe mental illnesses in a summer health camp for rehabilitation tourism // Special child: research and experience of assistance: Scientific and practical collection. – M.: Center for Curative Pedagogy, 2000. – Issue. 3. – pp. 98–110.
2. Karvasarskaya I. B. Aside. From experience working with autistic children. – M.: Terevinf, 2003.
3. Krasovskaya V. D. At the summer camp “Circle”. www.downsideup.org/_deti/letokroug.htm
4. Experience of an integration school: Collection. Scientific editor – Ph.D. psychol. Sciences Lyubimova G. Yu. - M.: Kovcheg, 2004
5. Information about the summer integrative camp for rehabilitation tourism “Onega”. – St. Petersburg: Public Fund for Assistance to Children with Developmental Disabilities. – “Fathers and Sons”, 2001
Venue of the sessions: Sochi Olympic Village
This is a place where children and parents play together and become fairy-tale heroes, movie and pop stars.
This is a place where you begin to see yourself from a completely different side, a place where you discover new qualities in yourself and in your loved ones.
These are unforgettable and exciting excursions, meeting new people and...
This interesting master classes, creative workshops, specialist consultations, parent groups, children's activities.
This the new kind rehabilitation without medical procedures for children, adolescents and people with disabilities health. Rehabilitation carried out through positive emotions and new experiences. Rehabilitation that helps the family unite even stronger, recharge with new strength and faith in themselves and their loved ones.
This is a vacation without hassle and unnecessary fuss (you don’t have to look for a place to stay and a transfer, come up with entertainment and activities, look for excursions and spend a lot of money on them. We have everything thought out, organized and planned).
This is a place where many pleasant surprises await you!
This is a place where dreams come true!
Family is the most important thing in the life of any person. Of course, it is a very rewarding activity to spend time with your family on vacation.
This program is family history, which began in the summer of 2013. The first shifts were held in the Republic of Bashkortostan. In 2014, the “Family Integrative Shifts” project was awarded a grant from the President of the Russian Federation, for which three shifts were held in the city of Anapa.
The program operates on the principle of a year-round camp, the only difference is that their parents participate in the program along with the children due to their individual needs. The goal of the program is to provide all children and young people with special needs with a full social life. The main objectives of the program are the integration of children into society, their sociocultural rehabilitation and adaptation.
“Star Camp”, the second name of the program was not given by chance, since from the very first shift the “trick” of the AP was meeting famous people: actors, singers, figure skaters, etc.
From 2013 to 2016, 780 people from 17 regions of Russia visited ZL.
From the very beginning of the program, managers tried to create the necessary conditions, taking into account the special needs of its participants. Not many hotels and sanatoriums have created an accessible environment, which is why the holidays of people with special needs are often uncomfortable. Thanks to cooperation with the hotel with the Olympic Village, the Family Integrative Shifts program in 2015 found a house that meets all the basic and additional requirements in the field of a barrier-free environment. Ramps and sidewalks with special coating have been built throughout the hotel, and a special information system has been introduced. The buildings implement special solutions that allow people with disabilities to feel comfortable and cozy during their holidays. Among them are proximity to the sea, access to the sea with smooth pedestrian and bicycle paths, which are made according to International standards, handrails, sides, flooring, doorways without height differences, automated devices for opening and closing doors and much more, and most importantly, financial accessibility program participants.
personality psychology adaptation individualization
Integration is a state of connectedness of individual differentiated parts into a whole, into a process leading to such a state.
Social integration presupposes ordering, conflict-free relations between an individual, organizations, the state, etc. In the process of entering Various types social communities the individual integrates social relations, a stable system of connections between individuals that have developed during their interaction in the social environment.
Social relations of the individual are manifested in the activities and behavior of a person as his social qualities. Social qualities are determined by the type of social interaction of an individual with other people in specific historical conditions. The social qualities of a person cover: a socially defined chain of his activities; occupied social statuses and performed social roles; expectations and relationships of statuses and roles, norms and values that guide him in the process of his activities; the system of signs he uses; a body of knowledge that allows you to fulfill the roles you have assumed and more or less freely navigate the world around you; level of education and special training; socio-psychological characteristics; activity and degree of independence in decision making.
A generalized reflection of the totality of recurring, essential social qualities of individuals included in any social community is captured by the concept of social type of personality. Naturally, when we talk about individuals as members of social communities, layers, groups, social institutions and social formations, then they mean not the properties of individuals, but social types of individuals. The grounds for the social typology of individuals are very different, but the most important of them are status and role in the system of social relations.
In other words, the social identity of an individual should be derived from its objective integration into various social communities, from its position in the system of social production, its implementation of social functions, etc.
There are four levels of personality integration.
At the first level, the integration of the individual into socio-economic relations occurs, which is mediated in childhood and adolescence by the parental home, and then by work. Contradictions may arise between the orientation laid down by parents in the process of upbringing, the forms of integration of the individual into socio-economic relations and its actual implementation, etc. Thus, people of 30-40 years of age, who were formed in conditions of an absolute state, state ownership of the economy and a high level of social security, find it difficult to enter the market system with their existing value orientations of receiving protection from the state, etc.
The second level of integration of the individual in society is functional integration. Social life cannot be reduced to socio-economic relations. Functional integration represents an extremely complex and multi-layered interweaving of social connections. The individual integrates into society through the implementation of many functions at various levels of social life. Any person performs functions in a family, student or work collective, as a resident of a house, among friends and acquaintances, etc. In a number of cases, a confrontation arises between the social demands presented to him in different functions, as is observed in the combination of the duties of a woman and a mother and a worker. Availability of shift opportunities social functions acts as a constant stimulus for personal growth and maturation. The young man takes on parental responsibilities and, in the professional sphere, begins to perform more complex tasks. The process of personal development is not a continuous ascent.
She has to master the old man's role as she approaches retirement age, phenomena of disintegration occur, “unloading” occurs in professional activity, the loss of a spouse is possible, social connections are limited to a narrow circle of people, etc.
The third level of integration of the individual in society is normative integration, which consists in the assimilation by a person of social norms, rules of behavior, habits and other intangible regulators. As a result, the individual’s value systems and a system of incentives to action are formed. IN modern conditions the main problem of the normative integration of the individual into social structures is the inconsistency of social norms functioning in society, which is due to the transitional state public life and differentiation of social interests on an economic, ideological, national and regional basis. Inconsistency begins to appear at the microstructure level, in small social groups, where basically the process of a person mastering social norms of behavior and testing them takes place.
The fourth level of personal integration in society is interpersonal integration, which develops by establishing positive connections between individuals in social communities. The term positive connection can be interpreted by analogy with sociometric measurements, when an individual names a certain number of other people, in his opinion, who sympathize with him and to whom he responds in kind, people with whom he likes to work together, willingly talks, exchanges thoughts, trusts and feels good. knows. Personal relationships regulate the behavior of individuals and entire groups and mediate the education system. There are more opportunities to maintain personal relationships in a village than in a large city, in residential areas of the city with a stable and long-term resident population - more than in new-building areas, etc. Interpersonal integration must be taken into account when implementing social management, especially in small groups in work collectives.
The levels of individual integration in society are interconnected and ensure a high degree of integration of a person into social communities. Any social community strives to ensure that the individual behaves more or less identically to the norms and expectations accepted in the group. The level of requirements regarding identity depends on the breadth and significance of the set of roles that a person implements within the community, on the cohesion of the community, and on the forms of regulation of the behavior of members of society. Social community determines the behavior of a particular individual through a selection mechanism for a particular role in accordance with abilities, level of training, biopsychic qualities, labor and other qualities that the individual must possess and comply with. A mechanism for monitoring the implementation of a social role by an individual in accordance with certain role norms. At the same time, integrating into social communities, the individual retains autonomy and freedom of choice, which, however, has its limits determined by universal, general civil regulations, the type of socio-economic and socio-political development, and the degree of extremity of the situation. The individual makes a choice among the roles offered by the circumstances of the social environment, among possible specific ways of their implementation.
Personal autonomy is also manifested in the fact that a person is able to distance himself from the role he performs, “ironize” himself and even hate himself for fulfilling one or another role prescription, as often happens in totalitarian regimes due to the conflict between social demands and moral universal values. A democratic and pluralistic society creates conditions for individuals to actively choose social roles based on their own value orientations.
Of course, the integration of the individual into various types of social communities is carried out on the basis of the mutual influence of social definition and the active conscious activity of the individual.
One of the significant issues facing families raising children with Down syndrome is still the attitude of society towards children with developmental problems. Many experts see a solution to this problem in the early integration of children with Down syndrome into the society of healthy peers (for example, teaching special children in special classes in public schools). Numerous studies have shown that graduates of correctional schools suffer from a greater number of deficiencies than their peers from special classes in public schools, whose social adaptation is much easier. At the early stages of a child’s development, certain conditions have been created for the inclusion of children with Down syndrome in the process of socialization in the form of specialized or integrative education. In adolescence, the relevance of issues regarding the inclusion of children with this chromosomal disorder and their families in society becomes more relevant. This is due to the fact that children are entering puberty, which entails emotional instability, conflicts with parents and peers. During this period, tension within the family due to the upcoming completion of training and the need for employment on the one hand, and the difficulties of passing adolescence on the other hand, the infrastructure of services for the socialization of children with Down syndrome in adolescence and young adulthood, as well as work with the families where they are raised, is significantly aggravated in connection with this.
The goal of the project: to create conditions for enriching the social experience of all participants in the integrative camp, the moral and cognitive development of both children with Down syndrome and healthy children, and the formation of tolerant behavior in children and adults.
1. Social and pedagogical:
Enrich the social (communicative and moral) experience of children and adults;
Increase the level of tolerance towards the individual and physical characteristics of peers.
2. Psychological:
Activate the cognitive development of children with Down syndrome through social acts of communication;
Avoid the formation of feelings of superiority or the development of an inferiority complex.
Create conditions for children with disabilities to imitate a “healthy” type of behavior as a behavioral norm of society;
Eliminate social isolation of families raising children with disabilities.
3. Psychotherapeutic:
To help solve intrapersonal problems in women raising children with Down syndrome;
4. Social and legal:
Inform parents about changes in legislation on issues of supporting families raising children with Down syndrome, information about the regional target programs “Accessible Environment” and “Children of Altai”.
