The Diagnostics of the Development of Skills of Communication with Adults and Peers in PRESchool children with Mental Retardation
The article presents the results of a theoretical and experimental investigation of communication development in preschool children with mental retardation. It also describes the psychological conditions required to develop and improve communication abilities. The research employs subject-activity approach to the investigation of preschool children communication development. The article maintains that quality characteristics of mentally retarded preschool children’s motivation and needs are the key factors in these children’s interaction with their environment. The article describes the results of a comparative research of the development of skills of communication with adults and peers in preschool children with mild mental retardation and their normotypical peers. The experimental data show that senior preschool children with mental retardation have underdeveloped motivation and needs for communication. They do not have required speech strategies, they do not show initiative, prefer to be passive and placid, are not interested in their communication partners. Communicating with their peers and adults, preschool children with mental retardation tend to use words and phrases that describe current situations, participate in practical interaction, interact verbally, ask for help. The authors maintain that the communicative development of preschool children with mental retardation can be enhanced through children’s communication with other members of community, through gradual elaboration of communicative tasks, through various verbal and non-verbal means of communication.