Klaipėdos universitetas

There is a wide range of rehabilitation programmes for the blind and visually impaired in Western countries, but these vary greatly in content and application, and no single ‘gold standard’ has been established, despite attempts to set such standards. In Lithuania, the policy for rehabilitation services for the blind and visually impaired began to be implemented in 2017. A qualitative research approach was chosen to determine the need for services and project activities for the blind and visually impaired, and to identify implementation shortcomings. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five blind or visually impaired people and four of their family members. The results of the research revealed that the blind and visually impaired faced complex psychological and social problems before participating in the social rehabilitation programme for the blind. It was found that there is a lack of coordination in the transmission of information between health-care institutions, municipal social institutions and NGOs. Patients are forced to seek information on their own, which reduces accessibility, acceptability, and the effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions. Many of the research participants received services quite late, and, according to the informants, the social rehabilitation programme for the blind had quality shortcomings.

The practical use of drawing in the work of psychologists, both in foreign countries and in Lithuania, far outstrips the number of publications about it. The development and peculiarities of the drawing of typically developing (TD) children, i.e. children without developmental disorders, whose aim is to represent an object in a way that makes it recognisable, have long been of interest to researchers. However, there has been less research on expressive drawing, which aims to express emotion or mood. Even fewer have scientifically studied the drawings of children with disorders, and this study aimed to assess intergroup differences between expressive and representational drawings of typically and atypically developing younger school-age children. The study involved 53 children, including 24 typically developing children (TD), 12 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and 17 children with hearing impairment (HI). Their average age was 8.5 years. The children drew two expressive drawings (happy and sad), and two representational drawings (a house and a person running). The evaluation of the drawings focused on: 1) the quality of the match between mood and task; 2) the representativeness of the house and the running man drawings, and 3) the correlation between the representativeness and the expressiveness of the drawings. The results showed that the expressiveness of happy drawings did not differ significantly between the groups, while the expressiveness of sad drawings was significantly higher in the TD group. The most representative were the drawings of children in the TD group. In all groups, as representativeness increased, so did the level of expressiveness. A statistically significant relationship between representativeness and expressiveness was found only in the ASD group.

Scientific journal Tiltai / Bridges / Brücken published by Klaipėda University (established in 1991) is devoted to the issues of social sciences, and seeking academic dialogue, also to other human and society functioning-related humanities and biomedical sciences, with expand and interpret different social phenomena and current issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. The publications attempts at analysing and solving actual problems of economy, management, demography, social geography, geopolitics, political sciences, history, education, religious, regional planning and land use, other social problems. Science has no borders. Therefore scientific cooperation is one of the most important elements in the progress of world’s community. Scientists from different countries of the world are kindly invited to write for and contribute to the journal.

he article examines the process of youth transition from the education system to the labor market in Lithuania. It discusses the context of social policy and the regulation of legal and strategic documents. The main focus is on the European Union’s Youth Guarantee program, aimed at reducing youth unemployment, particularly among NEET (youth not in employment, education, or training). The article addresses the theoretical assumptions of the transition process and analyzes various theoretical perspectives, such as status change and human capital theory, which are used to assess youth integration into the labor market. In the Lithuanian context, the transition from the education system to the labor market is not a linear process. Youth transition is often accompanied by periods of unemployment and inactivity. The article distinguishes three youth segments: labor market-active youth, inactive individuals (studying but not working), and NEET youth. Special attention is given to the NEET indicator, which has increased over the long term in Lithuania, although it has fluctuated in different periods. The study also highlights the connections between youth employment and unemployment indicators with the NEET group, as well as correlational relationships showing that fluctuations in youth unemployment rates are closely related to changes in the NEET indicator. Additionally, the impact of educational attainment on youth employment is analyzed, noting that higher education does not always ensure successful employment. The article provides conclusions and recommendations on how to improve youth opportunities for successful integration into the labor market.

This paper presents the results of analysis of lead isotope ratios (208Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb,