Technology for the integrated development of coordination abilities in primary school children with mild mental retardation

Importance. Currently, the coordination abilities development in children with intellectual disabilities is of particular importance, as an insufficient level of motor coordination negatively affects their physical development and social adaptation. Children with mild intellectual disabilities often experience difficulties in performing everyday movements, which limits their independence and self-confidence. Their underdeveloped coordination reduces motivation for movement and restricts the child’s functional capabilities. The aim of the study is to develop and test a technology for the comprehensive development of coordination abilities in younger school-age children with mild intellectual disabilities.

Materials and Methods. The following research methods are used during the study: analysis of literary and documentary sources, pedagogical experiment, testing, as well as processing and analysis of experimental data using mathematical statistics methods. These methods allowed for a deep study of the problem and an assessment of the proposed technology effectiveness for the comprehensive development of coordination skills in children with mild intellectual disabilities.

Results and Discussion. A pedagogical experiment is conducted, within which a technology for the comprehensive development of coordination abilities in younger school-age children with mild intellectual disabilities is developed and tested. The methodology is based on the step-by-step, sequential, and parallel development of coordination abilities with control over their formation at each stage and corresponding corrective actions. The experiment lasted for 10 months. To evaluate the effectiveness of the technology, diagnostic tests are used to assess the development level of coordination abilities in children. A comparative analysis of the data showed positive dynamics in improving coordination abilities, which confirms the effectiveness of the developed methodology.

Conclusion. The practical implementation of the technology for the comprehensive development of coordination abilities in children with intellectual disabilities began with a pilot study and a survey of specialists. The results allowed for the identification of the algorithm implementation stages, which formed the basis of the technology. During the eight stages, changes in coordination indicators in the control and experimental groups are analyzed. High results are achieved in static balance, significant changes are observed in dynamic balance, spatial orientation, and the acquisition of motor rhythm. An important feature of the technology is the attention given to fine motor accuracy. Despite moderate changes in the coordination of complex movements, the results showed significant progress. The study confirmed the high effectiveness of the developed approach, which can be applied both in adaptive physical education and in sports activities for children with intellectual disabilities.