10 films where the main characters are children with unusual abilities

Children with disabilities: features

HIA – limited health capabilities. However, as of 2020, this concept has been replaced. It’s more humane to say “children with special needs.” In this formulation, the emphasis is on the imperfections of society, and not on the defects of people. This society, its institutions and systems, due to their own limitations, cannot provide equal conditions for every child. Therefore, the emphasis is on changing environmental conditions and modernization in the interests of special children.

Types of developmental disorders:

• mental retardation (MDD);
• emotional and behavioral disorders;
• autism syndrome;
• hearing impairment;
• visual impairment;
• speech disorders;
• dysfunction of the musculoskeletal system.

Each of these problems has its own characteristics. Let's take a closer look:

• Children with mental retardation are characterized by a lag in one or more areas: speech, emotional, volitional. With competent psychological and pedagogical support, this feature is eliminated. In such children, play motives predominate. There is a poor vocabulary and rapid fatigue. In one or more areas, such a child corresponds to children of a previous age; infantilism is noted.
• When talking about emotional and behavioral disorders, we mean character accentuations. These are sustainable personal changes in one or more areas. It is customary to distinguish excitable, unstable, asthenic, psychasthenic, schizoid, mosaic (a combination of several features) accentuation. Until the age of 12 they talk not about accentuations, but about a difficult character.
• Autism looks like a shell. The child is in his own world, removed from society. The actions of an autistic person are stereotypical, emotions are stingy. The main feature is egocentrism. There is a delay in speech development, they speak about themselves in the third person.
• Hearing impairment involves qualitative and quantitative changes. There are complete hearing loss and hearing loss, the latter comes in 4 levels.
• Visual impairment affects posture, gait, and motor skills. Children experience slow assimilation and processing of information.
• Speech disorders cause changes in all areas: attention, perception, memory, thinking. Control and organization of activities is difficult. There is rapid fatigue and absent-mindedness, inertia.
• Supporting apparatus disorders are the largest group. All disorders are congenital or acquired medical in nature. The support plan depends on the specific disorder and the body’s compensatory capabilities.

According to UNESCO, 2 million Russian children suffer from some kind of mental and physical health disorder. According to the Ministry of Education, the number of children with disabilities increases by 5% annually.

Congenital syndrome

First of all, it is necessary to understand that any congenital syndrome, including Down syndrome, is not a disease, and therefore its treatment is impossible. A syndrome is understood as the total number of a number of symptoms that are caused by various pathological changes in the body. A large number of congenital syndromes are hereditary, but Down syndrome stands out from this list, being an exception. It got its name thanks to the doctor who first described it in 1866 (John Langdon Down). How many chromosomes does Down have? More on this below.

Escort

Accompanying children with disabilities is a system for creating socio-psychological and pedagogical conditions for the socialization and development of individuals with special needs.

It is necessary to take into account the nuances of child development for each type of disorder. And build work on their basis.

Impaired mental function

What is important to know about a child with mental retardation:

• Visual and effective thinking prevails. There is no need to overload with images and logical connections.
• The child successfully acquires knowledge in practice in joint activities with an adult.
• Difficulties arise in analysis, generalization, and classification of objects.
• Impossibility of establishing cause-and-effect relationships.
• Willingly interacts with adults and accepts help.
• Difficulty remembering. Involuntary memory predominates. Non-verbal, visual material is remembered better.
• Instructions are followed only with the help of adults and reminders.
• Memorization occurs better through the visual grouping method.
• Increased distractibility, decreased attention span and concentration.
• Inability to independently set activity goals. Focusing on the little things.
• Games like “Hot Chair” are useful for developing communication skills.

To develop perception, games for understanding your own body (show your right ear, touch your left heel), orientation in space (put a pencil to the left of the notebook), games with prepositions (who, behind whom, why), graphic dictations, drawing unfinished figures are suitable. Graphic dictations and additional drawing also help in the development of writing.

To develop memory: memorizing poetry, recognizing the rhythms of music, memorizing pictures, identifying changes in the environment, learning dances.

For the development of thinking: drawings, diagrams, tables and other material that simplifies perception; orientation of the theory to the life of the child; situations of success; compiling a story based on a series of pictures; exercise like "fourth wheel".

Development of attention: breathing exercises, exercises in a standing position, warm-ups, searching for differences in pictures, searching for a way out of the maze.

Speech development: increasing active vocabulary, telling a story according to a plan and pictures.

Development of fine motor skills: massage, shading, sand therapy, origami.

To form motives, it is useful to use games with rules and pantomime.

Behavioral disorders

When considering the problem of behavioral and personality disorders, psychologists focus on A. Lichko’s typology. The Soviet psychiatrist identified 10 types of accentuated characters. Read more about them and the features of interaction with each species in the article “Character Accentuations in Adolescence.”

To correct accentuation, the conditions of education change. It is necessary to structure the environment taking into account the strengths and weaknesses of the individual, avoid provoking situations and direct education to strengthen positive traits. Conversations and observation allow us to identify the specifics of a particular child’s accentuations. Without correction, disorders turn into psychopathy.

Children with autism

What you need to know to accompany children with autism:

• They are characterized by isolation and selectivity, a lack of emotions. Children with autism avoid social contacts and are self-centered, but in non-social activities they are many times superior to their peers.
• The underdevelopment of the emotional-volitional sphere is compensated by phenomenal memory or outstanding musical abilities.
• Autistic people do not have a strong need for communication. They are suitable for independent individual activities.
• A sudden change of situation is unacceptable. Stability is important to autistic people. They react to changes with aggression, self-aggression or withdrawal. Any little thing can cause such a reaction, for example, a teacher’s new clothes.
• It is important to praise your child. Be aware of fatigue.
• The activity should begin with the help of an adult. Fear and negativism are characteristic of autistic people; there is no need to put pressure on them.
• There needs to be minimal choice. The banal question “what do you want?” puts the autistic person into a stupor. He doesn't perceive himself.
• Avoid competitive spirit. Children with autism lack self-confidence.
• Every second there should be an adult with the child who will help him understand what the child likes, what he wants, what he likes.

Autism comes in 4 degrees of severity. Accompaniment depends on the severity of the syndrome. In the final stages, comprehensive care is needed, including medical care.

Hearing impairment

Wearing a hearing aid is mandatory, but it does not solve all problems. Difficulties still arise with the assimilation, development and understanding of oral speech.

Escort Features:

• If appropriate, you should arrange the desks in a semicircle.
• The child should have free space on his desk.
• You need to use your vision to compensate for your auditory abilities. The teacher should stand up in the light and wear bright clothes.
• Minimum gestures, do not cover your mouth with your hands.
• Do not turn your back to the child.
• To talk slowly.

Visual impairment

Due to their visual characteristics, children cannot work with black and white manuals or contour drawings. Tunnel vision predominates, so there is no need to rely on peripheral vision. You need to talk to your child directly in front of his face. The workstation should be in the center of the classroom. The teacher must not stand against the light. In addition, you need:

• slow down the pace of the lesson;
• speak slowly, ask clear questions;
• reduce the requirements for the quality of writing;
• provide additional time to complete the task;
• work with stencils and hatching;
• change types of activities, eye exercises are required;
• ask questions specifically, briefly, slowly; give time to think;
• use specialized equipment and visual techniques for organizing space to better perceive the properties of objects;
• When doing graphic tasks, assess not accuracy, but correct execution.

Speech disorders

Children with speech disorders are highly excitable. There are impairments in the cognitive sphere, lack of educational motivation, distractibility, and fatigue. The purpose of support is to improve environmental conditions to minimize the impact of developmental features. Family cooperation is required. In addition, be sure to:

• interaction between teachers, psychologists and doctors;
• creating a situation of success;
• novelty in the presentation and content of the material;
• encouragement, calm tone of the teacher, support;
• individual approach;
• game elements;
• exercises to develop fine motor skills;
• visibility.

Musculoskeletal disorders

The most common disorder is cerebral palsy (cerebral palsy). There is insufficient control of the nervous system. As a rule, the disease is combined with mental and speech disorders. Cerebral palsy is treatable.

Essence of support:

• conditions that are always comfortable for the child;
• regular expansion of the boundaries of the possible, maximum disclosure of potential;
• exclusion of unexpected external stimuli (sharp noise, approach from the back);
• taking into account the child’s sensitivity, touchiness, anxiety;
• warm-up during classes;
• assistance and supervision of an adult, reminding children with drooling about the need to swallow;
• test tasks for children with motor impairments;
• exercises for orientation in space (put your hand to the right of the notebook);
• clear speech with numerous repetitions, without raising the voice;
• increased time to complete a task.

It is necessary to draw up an individual education plan, taking into account the specifics of the environment, distance to school, the child’s needs, temperament and character, and abilities.

Amazing character

“Sunny” children have an amazing and unique character. From a very early age they are distinguished by activity, restlessness, mischief and extraordinary love of love. They are always very cheerful, it is difficult to focus their attention on specific things. However, there are no complaints about their sleep or appetite. Parents may complain about something else: it is quite difficult to cope with such a child at a party or on the street due to his activity and constant demand for attention to himself; he is very noisy and restless. It is difficult to explain anything to a baby with trisomy 21. Habitual methods of upbringing are ineffective for such children; you cannot scold them, because a reverse reaction will follow: either they withdraw into themselves, or their behavior becomes even worse.

Afterword

The learning environment plays a big role in the organization of support. The necessary environmental conditions are prescribed in state educational standards.

Interaction between parents and teachers is required. In almost every school, in addition to a full-time psychologist, there is an inclusion specialist and a psychological, medical, and pedagogical council (PMPk). For a special child, passing a consultation and commission is mandatory. Specialists will draw up an individual program for the development and support of the child, offer parents several educational options, and advise how to interact with the child specifically in their case.

Increasing age of women in labor

Currently, there is a tendency to increase the age of women in labor. But we must remember that even if a woman looks great at thirty-five and is actively engaged in her own career, her biological age will still work against her. Nowadays, it’s rare for anyone to look their age, since the female half of the population has learned to take very good care of themselves. It is clear that this particular time is the most suitable for leading an exciting, active, eventful life, traveling, building a career, starting a relationship, loving. However, genetic material, as well as female reproductive cells, steadily ages after a woman reaches the age of twenty-five. In addition, nature provides that over time, a woman’s ability to conceive and give birth decreases.

It is worth noting that the risk of having a child with disabilities is high not only in this category of mothers, but also in very young mothers who have not yet turned sixteen years old.

The development of Down syndrome is not influenced by the gender of the child, and this pathology is equally likely to occur in both girls and boys. However, modern science can predict the birth of a child with such a syndrome in the womb, when there is a choice: leave it or get rid of the pregnancy, and the parents can make the decision themselves.

We figured out who these “sunny” children are.