Mokymosi negalių turinčių vaikų socialinės kompetencijos ypatumai

Straipsnyje analizuojama vaikų, turinčių mokymosi negalių, socialinės kompetencijos problema, aptariami užsienio autorių darbuose paskelbti jos tyrimų rezultatai ir pateikiami mokymosi negalių turinčių vaikų, besimokančių Trakų rajono mokyklose, socialinės kompetencijos tyrimo rezultatai. Tyrime buvo siekiama palyginti mokymosi negalių turinčių ir vidutiniškai besimokančių vaikų atskirų socialinės kompetencijos aspektų – veiklos, ryšių su kitais, mokyklinės kompetencijos, socialinių įgūdžių, empatiškumo bei socialumo – ypatumus. Pristatomi empirinio tyrimo rezultatai, apibrėžiamos gairės tolesnėms šio pobūdžio studijoms.

The study deals with the problem of social competence in children with learning disabilities. The term “social competence” means those social, emotional and cognitive skills that are especially important for successful adaptation of the person – both the child and the adult. Although the definition looks simple at first sight, social competence is very hard to describe, as the skills and behaviour necessary for healthy social development vary depending on the age of the child and the requirements of the specific situations. For the purposes of this study social competence was defined as a multi-component phenomenon reflecting the following aspects: relationships to other people, engagement in activities, academic competence, communication competence (social skills and empathy), pro-social behavior. In Lithuania, social competence of children with learning disabilities has not been a distinct unit under analysis so far. Foreign authors specify that psychological features and the social competence of children with learning disabilities may act as a protective factor for their psychosocial adjustment. Even though foreign studies provide some evidence on social competence in children with learning disabilities being lower than in their average achieving counterparts there is no common agreement about a specific profile of social competence among learning disabled children. Moreover, some particular aspects of social competence might be culture specific. Therefore it is only by carrying out research that is possible to reveal the specifics of social competence in learning disabled children and to help these children to reduce problems of psychological adjustment, to develop their social competence so that in the future it would be much easier to these persons to be accepted in our society.