Klaipėdos universitetas

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.

This article offers an analysis of soft skills acquisition in children through animal training programmes within the framework of a two-year Erasmus+ project. The article overviews important aspects of shaping and introducing new approaches towards the acquisition of soft skills in children through animal training programmes. In this context, children participated in research in three countries (Lithuania, Belgium and Bulgaria), in three animal-assisted educational programmes: dolphin-assisted therapy, hippotherapy, and canine therapy. The results of the narrative analysis show a significant improvement in the skills of children, improving the quality of their relationships with themselves, with others, with animals, and with the environment. This reaffirms that exposing students to authentic, hands-on experience can significantly enhance their cognitive, social and emotional development. Moreover, the article shows that the process also increased the soft skills of teachers and of external actors involved in the process, reinforcing the importance of an open schooling approach as a way of improving all society. The article contributes to empirical evidence to support the integration of experiential learning into the pedagogical realm.

The article deals with the problems of the qualimetry of giftedness caused by the lack of a conventional definition of the term giftedness and its quantitative criteria. The method of calculation of child giftedness’ level and the quantitative measure of its expression is offered. On the basis of the proposed technique, the difference between comprehensive and special giftedness is demonstrated. Proposals for realization of some trends of research in giftedness are provided with the aim of their comparison with the studies of various authors.

The spectrum of the links between the quality of life and health has been expanding due to the phenomenon of health acquiring features of a social phenomenon and growing complexity. The research evidenced that health was considered to be one of the most important, and often the most important, dimension of the quality of life. To more comprehensively identify the health-related factors that affected the quality of life in general, the concept of the health-related quality of life has been developed. In our research 1763 children filled KIDSCREEN52 surveys which evidence tendency as follows: even though two thirds of the children did not indicate they had health disorders, only one third of them assessed their health as excellent and very good. This demonstrates that, in the children’s assessment of health, both the absence of a disease or disability and also psychological and social factors are important.

The article analyses the independence of children with mental and behavioural disorders, and the importance of its development and background, which creates the preconditions for a better quality of life. Psychomotor development and building up the independence of children with disabilities basically predetermine better conditions for the child’s integration into the community, the reduction of stress and dependence on family members, and better harmony in the family. The child’s psychomotor development covers major areas of child development: gross motor skills, fine motor skills, cognition, perception of language, verbal expression, self-regulation, and social and emotional development. But in terms of mental and behavioural disorders, the formation of skills proceeds in a more complex way. This disorder often manifests itself together with sensory problems: too high/low response, high stress felt, anxiety, and detachment from specific activities/measures, which may result in the delayed formation of independence skills. The development of the independence of a child with a disability is very important when individually selecting a suitable environment and factors that increase the motivation to learn, seek and interiorise newly acquired skills. These skills predetermine the possibilities for a person with a disability to feel independent in their daily activities in the future. Engagement in social interaction is an inevitable and important element of a high-quality daily life. Children with a disability face increased difficulties in their daily routines. Children with poorer social skills undergo social exclusion, and experience more difficulties in perceiving the feelings of other people, recognising and expressing emotions, complying with regulations and norms, and respecting themselves and others.