Features of dialogical speech of the senior preschool children with mental retardation
The analysis of modern pedagogical research, the practice of special pedagogy and psychology shows that the formation of dialogic speech of preschool children with mental retardation continues to be an urgent problem. Special attention should be paid to the study of initiative statements in the communication of children with disabilities. The article presents tasks developed by the authors for the diagnosis of dialogical skills of children in this category and evaluation criteria with a quantitative assessment measured in points. The tasks revealed the ability of children to answer different types of questions, conceive the plot using the characters' dialogue, and request information in dialogical communication. The children then were divided into levels depending on the points scored. A qualitative analysis of the data obtained allowed us to identify general patterns of communication skills of children with ASD. It turned out that children with mental retardation are characterized by a long “inclusion” in the task, the inability to solve communication problems, while focusing on the actions and statements of the partner, poor vocabulary, and the use of simple phrases. The survey data indicate that speech disorders in children with mental retardation are systemic and affect both active speech and the understanding of the addressed speech, which plays a key role in conducting a dialogue, as well as result in unformed mental operations, superficiality of thinking, its focus on random, isolated signs, inertia, and immobility of mental operations. Data on the ability of children in this category to independently request information and initiate communication are of interest. The article points to the need for further study of the dialogic communication skills of senior preschool children with mental retardation. At the same time, the survey results allow us to identify ways to develop the communication skills of preschool children with disabilities, selecting techniques and methods aimed at developing each aspect of dialogic skills.