No abstract

The article deals with the problem of the ability to use ideas about other’s knowledge and the ways of changing it, the ability to de-center thinking in the process of communication in the example of understanding deception in typically developing preschoolers and preschoolers with mental retardation. The recognition of deception is considered as a cognitive function, taking into account the specific techniques of the implementation of the mental model. Empirical sample of research: 72 children of pre-school age from 5 to 6 years. Contrast samples show the specificity of the lack of social interaction tools based on the mental model. Analyzed that in a game with deceit, a child is required to use signs to anticipate events that made it known about the nascent action of another person. In children with mental retardation in a game with deceptive action, shown a situational mode of action without taking into account the model of a mental interaction partner due to the lack of ability to decentration. The data reflects the relationship between the cognitive level of development and the level of the mental model in the process of forming the basis of social cognition and social experience in the early stages of ontogenesis.

The article is devoted to the study of the relationship between the mechanism of joint attention and the subsequent normative and atypical development of the child. It is shown that the ability to establish joint attention based on the direction of the interlocutor's gaze is a precursor of the emergence of social and cognitive abilities. The study examined the differences between typical developmental children and atypical development control groups in their ability to be sensitive to social behavioral signals, namely the orientation direction of the interlocutor's gaze. On a sample of 120 children with typical development, mental retardation, hearing impairment, speech disorders and visual impairment, a number of tasks were developed to assess the ability to use the character's direction of sight in the picture to determine its intentions. The task measured such a skill of joint attention as the child’s ability to calculate and report what the other person was looking at and what he intended to choose. We also used tasks with a central hint with an explicit indication of an arrow and a peripheral hint to check the recognition of social and non-social orienting signals. Based on the comparison of contrasting groups, the variability of the formation and age-related changes in skills of joint attention, or rather the presence of differences in recognition, synthesis and interpretation orienting social information coming from eye contact. It was found that children with atpic development have a low level of "downward" joint attention. Impaired joint attention may be one of the earliest signs in children with atypical development at a later age. The results showed that deficiencies in the behavior of joint attention vary depending on mental age and level of development, a sensory defect, so the level of development can really affect the ability of children to joint attention.

The article analyzes the relationship between the skills of joint attention and social and cognitive development of the child. It is devoted to the problem of identifying markers of oculomotor activity, which allows us to identify patterns that can reliably predict the development of joint attention deficit in various forms of atypical development. By tracking eye movements in a sample of 90 preschoolers with typical development, mental retardation, delayed speech development, visual impairment, hearing impairment, the following potential mechanisms underlying the atypical joint attention were found: atypical gaze following, impaired integration of joint attention, decreased recognition of the orienting value. More than that, the author states that the conducted analysis of contrasting clinical groups made it possible to identify the primary psychological causes of joint attention deficit, as well as universal and specific symptoms of joint attention disorders for different clinical groups.

The article discusses the role of a mental model and separately a mechanism of joint attention in the normative age development of preschool children. It is shown that children with joint attention deficit may have difficulty acquiring a wide range of developmental skills, and the ability to use the direction of sight is part of the overall mechanism. This mechanism will allow to further interpret and understand the meaning of social information, the child's ability to accumulate normal social experience. It was found that the typically developing children, children with a lower developmental limit and a delayed age development, the differences between them may be related to the fact that children participating in joint attention have more conditions for expanding opportunities for social learning. Changes in the accuracy indicators of identifying the direction of sight demonstrate the dynamics of the cognitive development of the child. In comparison, this makes it possible to assess the characteristic differences not only with pathology, but also with a decrease in the overall level of age development.