VB-MAPP: Opportunities for differential diagnosis of verbal skills and social interaction of children with autism and hearing disorders

Abstract

© 2020, Advanced Scientific Research. All rights reserved. Research issue. Today, one of the most significant and debatable issues are ones related to the identification and study of the most high-quality and modern tools for differential diagnosis of verbal behavior disorders in children with autism and other developmental disorders. The relevance of this problem is determined by the need to solve the priority problem of the development of modern education – to improve its quality for children with disabilities for their successful socialization in a modern rapidly changing society. The importance of this issue is determined by the need to develop psychological and pedagogical correctional strategies based on the knowledge about the stages of normal mental development of children, core manifestations of autism as distorted mental development and knowledge of other developmental disorders. One of the newest developments in the field of diagnosis of verbal skills and social interaction of children with autism and other developmental disorders is M. Sandberg's VB-MAPP program. It was designed to determine the basic level of child’s skills compared to normally developing peers. This program implies detailed assessment of child’s skills, thorough selection of goals, planning of the learning process and monitoring the development of child’s skills. Thus, the research objective is to study the experience of using the program for assessing verbal skills and social interaction in children with autism and other developmental disorders (VB-MAPP) and to experimentally identify the differential signs of verbal behavior disorders in children with autism and hearing impairments. The importance of the differential diagnosis is determined by the fact that children with autistic manifestations reasonably constitute a high-risk group, so the emphasis should be put precisely on early diagnosis aimed at differentiating verbal disorders and social interaction from other disorders in children with autism. Research methods: theoretical methods of constructive and functional analysis of the research subject based on the study of modern research. As empirical methods, we used a functional analysis of subtests of M. Sandberg's program “Assessment of verbal skills and social interaction for children with autism and other developmental disorders”. The study involved 6 preschoolers with autism and hearing disorders. Conclusions and recommendations. The research results allow us to conclude that domestic pedagogy and psychology currently face the acute problem of diagnosis and assessment of functional skills of children with developmental disorders. Its relevance is determined by the need to develop individual correctional and educational program for each child that would improve their socialization, increase the level of social adaptation, development and effective learning. The development of such programs is possible only with the presence of accurate data on the level of the development of children, which may be collected with the use of special assessment methods (such as-VB-MAPP) developed on the basis of the methods of Applied Behavior Analysis, which represents an effective approach for developing skills in children with autism and other developmental disorders. In the course of the research, we have conducted an experiment which helped to identify differential communicative features of children with autism and hearing impairments and carried out a comparative analysis to determine effective methods of further correctional work. The results of the research can be used for the development of adapted basic educational programs for organizations teaching children with autism, hearing impairments and other developmental disorders within the framework of both special and inclusive education, individual educational programs, and implementation of comparative studies within this problem field.