Social stories as a way of socializing of preschoolers with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the most pressing problems of socialization of children with special
educational needs in the context of modern socio-economic changes in society. The article analyzes «the
concept of socialization», outlines its stages, one of which is «social adaptation», reveals the features
of social adaptation of preschoolers, types of adaptation, «social competence», highlights the factors influencing its formation. It is proved that a child with intellectual disabilities develops under the condition
of mastering social experience. This becomes possible due to mastering the means of gaining such
experience. The article analyzes the stages of learning ways to learn social experience, in particular, they
include: joint actions of an adult and a child; use of gestures; imitation of adult actions; trial and error
method; sample actions; actions according to verbal instruction, which is an important task of correctional
and developmental work with children with intellectual disabilities. The article notes that mastering a new
social role, entering a new social situation can be of great importance for the development of the child’s
personality and further improvement of social interaction skills. In particular, the article outlines the
importance of using social stories that help the child understand social situations, while forming social
skills and determine the correct, adequate behavior. A topical joint project, a set of cards «Social Stories»
(2020), a tool for social learning, which can be used by teachers, psychologists and parents to teach
children. The presented set of cards «Social Stories» represents one of the effective techniques used in
the practice of working with children, including children with intellectual disabilities in order to develop
their skills of social interaction, communication, learning social norms and rules of conduct.
The author presents algorithmic steps and practical recommendations for the use of a set of cards «Social
Stories». Emphasis is placed on the prospects of further research on the outlined issues.