Features of the development of attention properties in hearing-impaired children with mental retardation

The paper deals with the peculiarities of the development of attention properties among hearing-impaired children of primary school age. At present, hearing impairment is one of the most common disorders of the psychophysical function of a person. According to the World Health Organization, there are about 42 million hearing-impaired people in the world. The hearing loss promotes the developmental delay of a child, that creates the need for differential diagnosis of the mental development of children with hearing impairment. A large scientific and social problem is the increase in the number of congenital and acquired diseases of the auditory system in early childhood, which requires the search for new ways of physical, psychological and social rehabilitation of children with special needs. The main tasks of the research were to study the properties of attention of children with hearing impairment with different degrees of mental development disorders. As a psychodiagnostic technique for determining the properties of attention, the Schulte and Toulouse-Pieron methods were chosen. The empirical hypothesis that the properties of attention among hearing-impaired children with a delay in mental development are better developed than in those with hearing impaired children with mental retardation. It was found that the hard-of-hearing children with mental retardation have less attention on the method of Schulte compared to hard-of-hearing children with mental retardation. According to the Toulouse-Pieron method, the children with hearing impairment with a delay in mental development, in comparison with hard-of-hearing children with mental retardation, have a higher concentration of attention and a much smaller number of errors, despite the same speed of the task. With the help of factor analysis by the method of main components it was established that attention, as a mental process of children with hearing impairments with different levels of mental development, has a two-factor structure, in which children with mental retardation outstrip their peers with mental retardation. The results obtained during the study can serve as a basis for differential diagnosis of the level of mental development of children with hearing impairment and the development of psycho-correction programs for children with hearing impairment.