Leadership of parents and teachers as a guarantee of psychological and educational therapy success for children with communicative disorders

• Main Author: O. O. Tsymbalenko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kamianets-Podilskyi National Ivan Ohiienko University, National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, G.S.Kostiuk Institute of Psychology 2018-03-01
• Series: Проблеми сучасної психології
• Subjects: speech delay; adult leadership; reference person; parents; family
• Online Access: http://journals.uran.ua/index.php/2227-6246/article/view/156642/156040

The successful psychological and educational therapy models being developed and used to help children with communication disorders by foremost psychologists and educators around the world are compared in the article. It is noted that regardless of differences in those models, they all have a common feature: the change of existing family model and establishment of parental and/or adult leadership within the child’s closest social circle, where those adults establish themselves as the reference persons – trusted and respected adults the child wants to interact with. The establishment of adult leadership has been shown to be extremely successful in the implementation of any of the therapies mentioned in this article. However, there have been no direct studies of that impact as of today. It is clear that understanding and importance of parent or teacher leadership in adult-child interaction has been so far vastly underestimated and understudied, and therefore needs to be researched further. We still cannot determine the exact process of developing leadership due to lack of research, even though data suggests that parental and teacher leadership is formed during emotionally significant activities. Emotionally significant activities include any socially beneficial activities that give the child new socially significant skills and allow them to feel useful and independent, which gives them motivation for further social interaction. In order for an emotionally significant interaction to occur, the adult has to accompany and support an emotionally significant activity, help the child make an effort and support them both physically and emotionally. An interaction suchas this creates respect for the adult in the child, making the adult leader and reference person for the child. This is an integral part and a guarantee for a successful psycho-educational therapy, as well as development of communicational cooperation in children with speech delays. It is the adult who loves and accepts the child with all his/her issues, who believes and helps him/her to improve, who is able to become a leader for that child and bridge the gap between society values and the child with communicative disorder