Correctional orientation of aesthetic education of children preschool age with disabilities

Introduction. The state policy in relation to children with disabilities (hereinafter referred to as children with disabilities) is aimed at updating the content of correctional and pedagogical assistance, one of the leading tasks of which is aesthetic development and upbringing. The specificity of the defect in children with disabilities is expressed in the difficulties of the formation of aesthetic culture and aesthetic perception of the world around them, which is one of the factors that negatively affect personality development, manifested in the inability to sociocultural adaptation and requires new approaches to solving this problem in the theory and practice of correctional pedagogy. Aim of the study: determination of the correctional orientation of aesthetic education of children with disabilities in the context of the basic component of aesthetics - the aesthetics of everyday life. Materials and methods. In the course of the study, the formation of knowledge about beauty, etiquette when receiving guests, eating meals was studied; the ability to evaluate serving and table behavior from the point of view of aesthetics; the ability to independently set the table, behave in accordance with the requirements of etiquette. The study involved 348 preschool children with visual impairments of varying severity (EG – 1, 116 people) and mental retardation (EG – 2, 122 people), with normal psychophysical development (EG – 3, 110 people). Results. As a result of the study, differences were established in the formation of the mechanism of aesthetic development in children of experimental EG-1 – CG (temp = -2.977; p≤0.003) EG-2 – CG (temp = -2.23; p≤0.027) in comparison with control group (CG). As a result, the features of the components of aesthetic development in children with mental retardation (PD) and children with visual impairments were revealed. So the worst formed is the cognitive component in children with CRD, 11%, in comparison with children with visual impairments (28%). The estimated component in children with visual impairments corresponds to 17% and 14% in children with CRD. The behavioral component is worse formed in children with visual impairments (14%); in children with mental retardation, the indicator of formation corresponds to 21%. Conclusions. The data obtained made it possible to prove the advisability of choosing the aesthetics of everyday life as the fundamental social competence necessary for the successful development of a child with disabilities and his entry into society. The peculiarities of the aesthetic development of children with mental retardation and visual impairment revealed in the course of the study became the leading factor for determining the corrective orientation of aesthetic education, which involves solving special (correctional) tasks in accordance with various components of the mechanism of aesthetic development of a child with disabilities (in the context of everyday aesthetics).

For happy children with a visual or visual-and-intellectual disability: Efficacy research to promote sensitive caregiving with the Barti-mat

Cycles of miscommunication often occur within the caregiver–child dyad when a child has a visual or visual-and-intellectual disability, influencing sensitive and responsive caregiver behaviour and child happiness. This study aims to examine the efficacy of using interactive technology, the Barti-mat, to promote sensitive and responsive caregiver behaviour, specifically mirroring behaviour, and increase the happiness of children with a visual or visual-and-intellectual disability. The secondary aim is to examine the social validity of the Barti-mat. A mixed-method approach was used, combining quantitative data from a multiple within-series single-case design and qualitative data comparing play-as-usual with play on the Barti-mat. Eleven caregiver–child dyads participated in a home-based study. No significant effects were found for Attunement nor for Valence. Significant improvements were found for Total Mirroring, Happiness, and Arousal. Overall, the caregivers enjoyed using the Bart-mat and were enthusiastic about the development of specialized play material for children with visual impairments. Results of the current study suggest that the Barti-mat can act as catalyst for caregiver mirroring behaviour and improve the happiness of a child with a visual or visual-and-intellectual disability. Caregivers were generally motivated to use and recommend the Barti-mat again. Minor product improvement recommendations were made. The Barti-mat is appropriate for a diverse group of caregivers and children with a visual or visual-and-intellectual disability and would be a good adjunct to preventive attachment-based interventions.

Smartphone-based food recognition system using multiple deep CNN models

People with blindness or low vision utilize mobile assistive tools for various applications such as object recognition, text recognition, etc. Most of the available applications are focused on recognizing generic objects. And they have not addressed the recognition of food dishes and fruit varieties. In this paper, we propose a smartphone-based system for recognizing the food dishes as well as fruits for children with visual impairments. The Smartphone application utilizes a trained deep CNN model for recognizing the food item from the real-time images. Furthermore, we develop a new deep convolutional neural network (CNN) model for food recognition using the fusion of two CNN architectures. The new deep CNN model is developed using the ensemble learning approach. The deep CNN food recognition model is trained on a customized food recognition dataset.The customized food recognition dataset consists of 29 varieties of food dishes and fruits. Moreover, we analyze the performance of multiple state of art deep CNN models for food recognition using the transfer learning approach. The ensemble model performed better than state of art CNN models and achieved a food recognition accuracy of 95.55 % in the customized food dataset. In addition to that, the proposed deep CNN model is evaluated in two publicly available food datasets to display its efficacy for food recognition tasks.

Interpersonal relationships of children with visual impairment

Одной из проблем, которую должна решить психологическая и педагогическая наука, является социальная адаптация, реабилитация и интеграция детей с недостатками зрения в общество. В советский период известные психологи Л. С. Выготский, Р. М. Боскис, М. С. Певзнер, Ф. Ф. Рау и другие стояли на пути индивидуального подхода в обучении детей с психо-физическими нарушениями. Такие дети требуют специальной поддержки, помощи в обучении в зависимости от их психо-физических пороков. Все это должно быть направлено на раскрытие индивидуальных возможностей учащихся для достижения социальной адаптации и интеграции их в общество. В исследованиях отмечается, что дети с недостатками здоровья легко воспринимают наряду с положительными сторонами жизни также негативные, в частности вступая в конфликт с законом. Целью данного исследования является анализ проблемы обучения детей с недостатками зрения и раскрытие педагогических условий, которые будут способствовать эффективной адаптации и интеграции их в общество. За последнее десятилетие принят ряд нормативных документов по улучшению учебно-воспитательного процесса в школе, в частности, по специальному образованию (принят закон “Об образовании” и “концепция специального образования”, принята Декларация ООН о правах отсталых детей и инвалидов и др. Большинство вспомогательных школ являются школами интернатного типа. Это приводит к изоляции ребенка от общества, созданию условий, направленных, в основном, на удовлетворение личностных потребностей детей. В таких условиях формируется лицо, которое не готово к полноценной самостоятельной жизни после окончания учебного заведения. Встал вопрос о модификации системы специального образования-осуществлении интеграции в общеобразовательную структуру. One of the problems that psychological and pedagogical science should solve is the social adaptation, rehabilitation and integration of children with visual impairments into society. In the Soviet period, well-known psychologists L. S. Vygotsky, G. M. Boskis, N. Sec. Pevsner, F. F. Rau and others stood in the way of an individual approach to the education of children with psycho-physical disabilities. Such children require special support, assistance in learning, depending on their psycho-physical vices. All this should be aimed at revealing the individual capabilities of students to achieve social adaptation and integration into society. The research notes that children with disabilities are easily perceived along with the positive aspects of life as well as the negative, in particular, coming into conflict with the law. The purpose of this study is to analyze the problem of teaching children with visual impairments and to reveal the pedagogical conditions that will contribute to their effective adaptation and integration into society. Over the past decade, a number of normative documents have been adopted to improve the educational process in schools, in particular, on special education (the law “On Education” and “The Concept of Special Education”, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Backward Children and Disabled People, etc.). Most of the auxiliary schools are boarding schools. This leads to the isolation of the child from society, the creation of conditions aimed mainly at meeting the personal needs of children. In such conditions, a person is formed who is not ready for a full-fledged independent life after graduation. The question arose about the modification of the system of special education-the implementation of integration into the general education structure.

Bullying in physical education of children and youth with visual impairments: A systematic review

Bullying is prevalent in youth but occurs at a higher rate of incidence in children with visual impairments in comparison to children without disabilities. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review of literature from the past 20 years on bullying research in physical education of youth with visual impairments. This review examined studies on bullying in physical education for school-age children with visual impairments. Articles that did not include children with visual impairments or blindness, physical education, or any type of intentional bullying were eliminated. After a thorough screening of the articles obtained in the search, 14 were selected and analyzed thematically. Results revealed that of the 114 participants in these studies, 86% experienced social–relational bullying, 64% experienced verbal bullying, and 21% experienced physical bullying. Children with visual impairments were bullied in physical education class by their teachers (50%), paraeducators (7%), and their peers (93%). The bullying occurred in class (93%), in the locker room (21%), and at various locations outside of class. Generalization of these findings to all children with visual impairments is limited due to a lack of quantitative studies found with our search criteria. However, the findings indicate a need to educate teachers and paraeducators about proper modifications to class structure and assessment practices, as well as variations to sports and physical activity, to reduce bullying. In addition, teaching self-advocacy to children with visual impairments may minimize bullying and help with peer acceptance and support in the classroom.