The paper analyses the modern situation of development in elementary school children. As it is shown, children with special educational needs display a delay in social maturation. According to the outcomes of a longitudinal study on behaviour in communicative/activity situations in normally developing children and children with disabilities, at the point of school entry the following features are prominent: incomplete decentration process; low levels of verbal regulation of actions; underdeveloped dialogue functions (communicative, programming, controlling/regulative); decrease in self-regulation, programming and control; lack of position dynamics in partnership etc. The paper also provides a review of the new basic professional education programme in “Correctional and Developmental Work with Children” designed in modules and based on networking. It is argued that students graduating in this programme have mastered all competencies required for working with children with special needs.

The article presents the experience of designing the educational module "Special and Developmental Teaching" of School Psychology Master’s program. The modular-sized program includes practical training and research activity in each module in a networking, it complies with Federal State Educational Standard and professional teaching and educational psychology standarts. Practice-oriented education Master’s training model based on the activity and competence approaches is productive. We have shown the advantages of networking and the need to divert more resources towards practical training and to include research activity in particular module. It is necessary to teach educational psychologists not only to "know", but also to "knows how", to have professional thinking and metasubject competencies, to have the capacity for reflection, i. e. to operate in an uncertain environment for new schemes on the basis of the scientific method. It is important that the modular principle design allows adding training subjects from one of educational program to other and so developing new programs.