An empirical approach to monitoring and documenting the development of children with disabilities during focused arts education activities

Abstract

The authors consider the monitoring and documentation of the development of children with disabilities from the point of its rebounding in the practice of educators, and not as a formal documentation collection. Activities of artistic education are seen as an opportunity for educators to gain a more realistic insight into the development and progress of preschool children. Products of art education are exact and in that sense they can be analyzed right after the activity and from a certain time distance. The discourse of educators and artistic works is a good basis for planning and programming the educational work. During the realization of art activities, the educator has the opportunity to observe the behavior of children and make notes. The research involved 127 educators. For the needs of the research, a questionnaire was created that contains, besides general data on respondents, 12 questions related to the observations of educators on the preparation of children with developmental disabilities for going to school. The results of the study show that there are significant statistical differences in teachers' responses about several claims. The conclusion of the work that educators in their practice should use focused art activities as one of the most reliable sources for documenting and monitoring the development of preschool children. In this direction, they should improve their practice and contribute to the creativity of the educational process that will be based on the individual interests and abilities of children.

Praćenje i dokumentovanje razvoja dece sa smetnjama u razvoju autori razmatraju sa gledišta refleksije u praksi vaspitača, a ne kao formalno prikupljanje dokumentacije. Aktivnosti likovnog vaspitanja sagledavaju se kao mogućnost da vaspitači steknu realniji uvid u razvoj i napredovanje predškolske dece. Produkti likovnog vaspitanja su egzaktni pa u tom smislu mogu da se analiziraju nakon aktivnosti, ali i sa određene vremenske distance. Diskurs vaspitača i produkata likovnih aktivnosti jeste dobra osnova za planiranje i programiranje vaspitno-obrazovnog rada. Tokom realizacije likovnih aktivnosti vaspitač ima mogućnost da posmatra ponašanje dece i pravi beleške. U istraživanju je učestvovalo 127 vaspitača. Za potrebe istraživanja konstruisan je upitnik koji sadrži pored opštih podataka o ispitanicima i 12 pitanja koja se odnose na opažanja vaspitača o pripremi dece sa smetnjama u razvoju za polazak u školu. Rezultati istraživanja pokazuju da postoje značajne statističke razlike u odgovorima vaspitača na nekoliko tvrdnji. Zaključak rada da je vaspitači u svojoj praksi treba da koriste usmerene likovni aktivnosti kao jedan od najpouzdanijih izvora za dokumentovanje i praćenja razvoja predškolske dece. U tom pravcu treba da unapređuju svoju praksu i doprinose kreativnosti vaspito-obrazovnog procesa koji će zasnivati na individualnim interesovanjima i sposobnostima dece.