Soter Nr. 26 - Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas

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Genutė GEDVILIENĖ, Zita BAUŽIENĖ, Ona DARBUTAITĖ
Genutė GEDVILIENĖ, Zita BAUŽIENĖ, Ona DARBUTAITĖ
THE ROLE OF THE FAMILY IN DEVELOPING SOCIAL SKILLS AMONG CHILDREN WITH
MOVEMENT DISABILITIES
S u m m a r y
A family is one of the oldest and most important institutions for child socialization, as the child experiences
here the first interactions that have a special role in determining life quality for a man as a personality. A family
is the place where a child has a shelter from hostile and stressful world (G. Colombero, 2001; I. Jonutytė, 2007).
However, the authority of the family in the modern society is destroyed, and this encouraged transformation
of the family model by increasing the number of incomplete families. Children from incomplete families lose
the guarantee of safe and harmonized development of their personality, therefore, socialization process becomes
destroyed. Families bringing up children with movement disabilities experience not only consequences
of transformation of the family model, but also influx of causes brought by the child‘s disability: ignorance of
family friends, over politeness, rejection, irony, and the like. This reason causes the search for new friends who
are sometimes of the same fate, as people feel understood when having similar problems. Such family experiences
crises when the stress cased by disability increases, and the results of this can be divorce. If there are more
children in the family, they also experience a lot of stress and tension. How can we help such a family bringing
up a child with movement disabilities? The child who has movement disabilities will always need parental and
other family members help. The most important is that such child understands that he troubles other family
members. The aim of this research is to determine the role of the family bringing up children with movement
disabilities in development of their social skills. The following tasks are formulated to achieve this aim:
- To reveal social situation of the family bringing up a child with movement disabilities;
- To clarify the role of the family bringing up children with movement disabilities in development of
their social skills.
Research object is the role of the family bringing up children with movement disabilities in development
of their social skills
A survey using a questionnaire was performed for empirical research. The research is based on Christian
social teaching conception that is based on two attitudes towards a man by the Church: individuality (with the
focus on human dignity) and social ability (based on interrelation among men in the society and community).
The basis for the Christian social teaching is the basic principles of the church: common wealth and solidarity
that proclaim the support of all citizens, the state and the society (J. Hoffner, 1996; V. Kazlauskas, 1993).
The aim of the empirical research was to clarify which social skills are missing among children with movement
disabilities in families. The majority of parents identified that children with movement disabilities are able
to understand and express their emotions, and they know how to communicate with adults. However, it should
be noted that on partial integration conditions the children with movement disabilities, who are learning, have
more difficulties in communication with peers, they lack independency, self-confidence and responsibility.
Children who study at home lack self-confidence and independency. Children who study at home upon partial
integration conditions lack respectfulness towards other people. The families responded to open questions
telling that children who study upon total integration conditions are good at communication with their peers,
they are independent, but they are carefully expressing their emotions, in other words, they do not feel free.
Emotions of children with movement disabilities who study upon partial integration conditions are inconsistent;
they can be expressed in the rage from the most negative to the most positive.
Having summarized the results of the research, it can be stated that integrated teaching creates the most
favourable conditions to develop social skills among children with movement disabilities, as all interactions
among surrounded people are built up in a natural way.
PAGRINDINIAI ŽODŽIAI: judėjimo sutrikimai, socialiniai gebėjimai, šeima, savirealizacijos galimybė.
KEY WORDS: movement disabilities, social skills, family, self-realization.