Emotional Comprehension of the Value of Environmental Safety by Schoolchildren with Intellectual Disability

Abstract

The topicality of the study is explained by the fact that schoolchildren with a temporary intellectual disability perceive the world around them, the ecological situation, and natural processes in a peculiar way. Such children have difficulty comprehending some terminal values, such as "environmental safety". The purpose of the article is to theoretically and experimentally substantiate the methods and means of emotional comprehension of environmental safety by schoolchildren with temporary intellectual disability. The research was based on the methods of theoretical analysis of domestic and foreign literary sources, testing of 20 students with intellectual disability, interviewing, and a pedagogical experiment. The article theoretically justifies that emotional comprehension of the value of environmental safety by schoolchildren with temporary intellectual disability is possible as a result of their constantly organized assessment of environmental situations. The analysis of diagnostics made it possible to establish that, without special work with schoolchildren with intellectual disability, 25% of the children emotionally inadequately assess the environmental situations offered to them visually and verbally. The majority of students (60%) does not feel the need for active action. 5% of children believe that they cannot in any way change or influence the ecological situations in their region. The practical significance of the results of the study lies in the experimental proof that in order to understand the value of environmental safety for children with intellectual disability, it is necessary to use the methods of "emotional explosion", empathy, emotional-value contrasts, accentuation of emotions, and during the collective project activity to role-play psychological situations.