Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A. S. Makarenko, Sumy, Ukraine

scientific journal of the modern education & research institute • The Kingdom of Belgium

correctional imPact of musical actiVitY on the deVeloPment of the PersonalitY of a Preschooler With reduced Vision

Yuliia Bondarenko, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Department of Special and Inclusive Education (bondarenkosspu@gmail.com)

Sumy State Pedagogical university named after a. S. Makarenko, Ukraine

abstract

Vision disorders negatively affect the formation of the child’s activities, his personal development. The purpose of this research is to illuminate and justify the ways of enhancement the corrective influence of musical activity on personal development of preschool children with reduced vision. The introduction of special methods, techniques and means of personal development, correctional developmental classes, the implementation of the four stages of correctional work are defined as ways to enhance the correctional effectiveness of musical activity.

Keywords: pre-school children with reduced vision; musical activity; ways of correctional influence; personal development.

introDuction

Musical art has a great potential for the development of the individual. It introduces the child to universal values, contributes to his spiritual development. Inclusion of children in musical activity plays an irreplaceable role in their spiritual, moral, cultural and musical-aesthetic development.

Since the beginning of the twentieth century until now, the problem of correctional influence of musical art on the development of children with special educational needs has been remaining relevant. Modern understanding of the correctional and developmental influence of musical art is based on fundamental researches of the problem of correctional orientation of the educational process and upbringing of children with special educational needs [10; 12]. In the field of preschool tiflopedagogics in Ukraine, the studies of E. Sinyova [11], S. Fedorenko [2], appeared to be significant. Their focus in correctional and pedagogical work with children who have visual impairments is on the complex influence on the various components of the personality structure. However, the aspect of the corrective musical influence on the development of the personality of children with reduced vision was not subject to a thorough study at the preschool tiflopedagogics.

The Purpose of the Article: illumination and justification of ways to enhance the corrective influence of musical activity on personal development of preschool children with reduced vision.

The Goals of the Article: 1. Investigation of the content range and the structure of remedial aspect of musical activity of preschool children with reduced vision. 2. Diagnostics of the levels of personal development of preschool children with reduced vision and comparing these data with the levels of personal development of children with normal vision. 3. Disclosure of the content of correctional work with preschool children with reduced vision during musical activity and validation of its effectiveness.

In order solve the research problems and determine the content and implementation of component structuring of the correctional musical activity such theoretical methods as analysis, synthesis and generalization of literature were used. As for empirical methods: ascertaining experiment in revealing levels and features of personal development of preschool children with reduced vision and molding experiment to verify the effectiveness of corrective work were introduced. As well as statistical methods: mathematical statistics methods using Student’s t-criterion and Fisher’s exact criterion were applied in order to assess the dynamics of the personal development of children with reduced vision and the reliability of the data obtained in the experimental and control groups at the formative stage of the study and the effectiveness of the experimental work performed.

The study of the levels and characteristics of personal development (PD) was carried out according to a specially developed diagnostic technique that contained five components of the PD with the corresponding indicators. The first component is needs-motivational (interest in musical art, desire to participate in various types of musical activity). The second component is emotional-axiological (demonstration of emotional activity in response to music, formation of emotional vocabulary, development of musical preferences). The third component is cognitive (perception and understanding of music, appropriateness and expressiveness of speech). The fourth component is psychomotor (activity of movements to music, spatial organization of movements and coordination of movements; coordination of movements of general and fine motor skills with speech). The fifth component is creative (ability to sing and move to music). 472 preschool children with reduced vision and 470 children with normal vision took part in the ascertaining experiment. At the molding stage of the study, 236 children of experimental and two control groups from preschool institutions of Ukraine (Kyiv, Dnepropetrovsk, Sumy, Ternopil, Kherson, Chernigov regions) were involved. The first control group included the children with normal vision (N/V), the second control and experimental groups involved the children with reduced vision (R/V).

In consequence of the analysis of special literature, it was discovered that since the beginning of the 20thcentury until modern time, music art has been considering as a factor that plays an important role in the correctional work with children having various disorders in psycho-physical development, at first in the direction of using musical-rhythmic exercises, and then–in practicing classes in musical education.

Visual disorders and diseases affect the formation of all human activities and his mental functions; provoke the emergence of unfavorable conditions of development, the occurrence of secondary personality deviations. This underlines the importance and necessity of organizing the corrective process of musical activity of preschool children with reduced vision [1]. It should be noted that, special psychology states that corrective efforts should be directed at eliminating shortcomings and developing cognitive activity, emotional-volitional sphere, physical, locomotor qualities, speech and the personality of a child with psychophysical disorders, in particular with visual impairments [8; 11]. Preschool age is sensitive to the formation of musical activity skills and favorable for the correction of psychophysical development disorders [4; 11; 13].

The analysis of the investigated issue made it possible to figure out that the category of «musical activity» is connected to the sphere of musical art [9; 7]. Summarizing the approaches of inter-branch integration of scientific knowledge, the musical activity of the correctional orientation is treated as a way of engaging a child with reduced vision in the process of musical education. Thus, it not only implements educational, upbringing and developmental influences on child’s personality, but also correctional one, stimulating the improvement of disturbed components of personal development. The structure of the correctional orientation of musical activity is defined as systemic integrity. It consists of four blocks: musical-oriented, musical-cognitive, musical-praxeological, musical-creative with the corresponding components of personal development: needs-motivational, emotional-axiological, cognitive, psychomotor and creative. The taskoriented corrective effect on impaired components will improve the levels of personal development of preschool children with reduced vision that, thereafter, will contribute to their socialization.

Comparative analysis of the empirically obtained data at the ascertaining stage of the study made it possible to reveal a significant disjuncture between the children with reduced vision and their contemporaries with normal vision at all levels of personal development: at high level 13.3%, at sufficient level 18.6%, at average level 17.1%, at initial level 14.8% (Figure 1).

Figure 1. the comparison of quantitative indicators of the levels of personal development of children with normal and reduced vision, obtained at the ascertaining stage of the study (in %).

In accordance with the results of the ascertaining stage of the research, the problem of finding ways to enhance the corrective effectiveness of musical activity of preschool children with reduced vision arises. The goal of implementing the remedial aspect of musical activity is to improve the levels of personal development of preschool children with reduced vision due to the solution of a group of corrective-developing tasks aimed at improvement its disturbed components. These tasks include: 1. Needs-motivational: the formation of interest in communicating with musical art, desire to participate in various types of musical activity. 2. Emotional-axiological: the development of emotional activity, musical preferences, activation of emotional vocabulary. 3. Cognitive-epistemological: the development of perception and understanding musical works, their content and expressive means, overcoming verbalism of representations; the development of speech expressiveness, speech activation and communicative activity. 4. Effective-practical: the development of muscular-motor activity, spatial organization of movements, coordination of movements, their harmonization with speech. Overcoming the specific features of the performance of movements (uncertainty, inconsistency, constraint, stereotypy, gait disturbances, etc.), as well as the shortcomings of spatial orientation (incorrect trajectory, fear of moving in space, decreased activity, etc.). 5. Creative: the development of the ability to create (melody, motor image), development of independence in the creative process, overcoming negative manifestations (indistinctness, oversimplification, etc.) in the process of creating new products of musical activity. 6. Compensatory: the development of the sensory-perceptual sphere.

The implementation of the tasks was carried out at four stages of corrective work. At the first stage, the propaedeutic stage (the period of early childhood), children developed auditory perception with the help of accessible types, forms and means of musical activity, and in the conditions of constant growth of success in its various forms, consolidation of the achieved positive results, application of special corrective methods and means of stimulation, activation and mediated assistance of adults. Musical images, speech, motivation for communication and musical-rhythmic moves were formed and developed. Thus, children were prepared to perceive musical information on a multimodal basis, which ensured the elasticity of the inclusion of sensory analyzers in compensatory work. Propaedeutic exercises were predominantly conducted in a family environment.

At the second stage, the preparatory stage, attention was paid to the development of children’s interest in music and the desire to communicate with it, to participate in various kinds of musical activity, which ensured the formation of needs-motivational component of the musical and personal development of preschool children with reduced vision. The implementation of this stage was held in the daily regime of preschool children: in the process of educational activities of educators and specialists of the institution, independent children’s activities, as well as in conditions of family upbringing.

Within the scope of the research subject, attention is focused on the implementation of the third–the corrective stage of the experimental work. It is determined by methods and means of managing personal development and special forms of organizing musical activity.

The fourth –the presentation stage is aimed at demonstrating to preschool children with reduced vision their musical and musical-motor achievements in the process of musical entertainment, independent musical activity, etc. This stage is the evidence of the effectiveness of the corrective work performed.

In the technical process of the forming experiment, a number of methods and means of personal development were used. Among them are: verbal (story, conversation, explanation, use of an artistic word); methods and techniques of purposeful assistance of teacher (instructions, advice, verbal support, hint); method of rhythmic declamation, reception of color correlation; visual (demonstration, illustration) using musical-didactic, multimedia means of visualization of the pedagogical process; practical (exercises, step-by-step training, simultaneous actions, imitation, creative reproduction, inventing, problem-solving situations, creating a situation of success). Particular importance was attached to the use of methods and means of compensatory development (sensory perception of music, «tactile» perception of music, and mimic reflection of the nature of music).

To enhance the effectiveness of the corrective effect on impaired components of personal development, corrective-developing activities such as rhythmics, musical logo rhythmics, horizontal rhythm plastics, and musical therapy were introduced. Each activity was aimed at the complex implementation of correctivedeveloping tasks with an accentuated impact on individual disturbed components of personal development through the introduction of specific types of musical activity.

The results of the forming stage of the study proved the effectiveness and performance of the organized and conducted corrective work. Thus, personal development of the children of the experimental group (r / v) has been considerably improved by all standards compared to children of the same category of the second control group (r / v) (with a significant difference at initial level – 10.5% and sufficient level – 10.1 % and, with less significant difference – at high level – 5.7% and average level – 5.3%). It has approached the levels of personal development of children with normal vision of the first control group, where the smallest difference between them was at initial level – 1, 8 % (at the ascertaining stage 14.8%). Positive shifts occurred in the children under study of sufficient level, where the difference between them was 5.5% (at the ascertaining stage – 18.6%), of high level – 5.7% (at the ascertaining stage 13.3%) and of average level – 13, 0% (at the ascertaining stage – 17.1%) (Figure 2).

Figure 2. comparative analysis of the levels of musical and personal development of children of control and experimental groups.

Diagnostic data in the experimental group have demonstrated a positive dynamics of personal development of all its components and indicators studied.

Compensatory development of children has become an important achievement in the process of introducing four stages of corrective work. It included the use of preserved analyzer systems in various types of musical activity, which were directed by the teacher to the development of auditory perception, timbre, dynamics, rhythmics, melodics, kinesthetic and motor-kinesthetic analyzer, etc. The great importance in this work was attached to the development of residual vision, its oculomotor mechanism, tracing functions, depth perception, the formation of skills for visual assessment of the distance between objects (accurate eye), color vision, etc.

concluSion

The musical activity of the remedial aspect is treated as a way of engaging a child with reduced vision in the process of musical education. Thus, it not only implements educational, upbringing and developmental influences on the child’s personality, but also correctional, stimulating the improvement of disturbed components of personal development.

As a result, the implementation of the ways of improving the corrective effectiveness of musical activities, which was outlined in the work, has significantly improved the levels of personal development of preschool children with reduced vision in the unity of such components as needs-motivational, emotionalaxiological, cognitive, psychomotor, and creative.

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