Types of academic adaptation of adolescents with limited health capacities
Authors:   Saratov State University, Grigoryeva Marina V. , Shamionov Rail M. ,   Saratov State University, Grinina Elena S. ,   Saratov State University, Sosonnik Alexey V. ,   Saratov State University
Published: December 2022

Academic adaptation has a significant impact on child’s success in mastering an educational programme, his/her integration into the society and personal development. Learners with limited health capacities may show specific features of academic adaptation. The aim of this study is to explore the types of academic adaptation of adolescents with disabilities on the basis of self-assessment of adaptation characteristics, parents’ and teachers’ evaluation. The study involved adolescents with hearing impairment – 11 persons (5 girls, 6 boys), with visual impairment – 14 persons (4 girls, 10 boys), their parents and teachers. To explore the academic adaptation, the authorly questionnaire and scales for parents and children were used to assess the motivational, emotional, cognitive, communicative, personal (regulatory) and psychophysiological components of academic adaptation. New scientific data were obtained in respect of specificity of academic adaptation of teenagers with disabilities, including the characteristics of motivational, emotional, cognitive, communicative, personal (regulatory), psychophysiological components. It was found that the estimation of all academic adaptation components by the adolescents with disabilities themselves was above the average; however, the psychophysiological component tended to be disadvantaged. The assessment of the teenagers’ academic adaptation components by the teachers and parents was not significantly different for the most part, except for the communicative component: the latter evaluated the adolescents’ communicative competence to be higher (Mann-Whitney U test = 215, at p<0.05). All of the teachers’ scores were lower than that of the parents, but the main trends remain the same: the emotional, communicative and personal components of academic adaptation of adolescents with disabilities were rated to be higher. Based on the factor analysis, several types of academic adaptation of adolescents with disabilities are highlighted from the perspective of the learners, parents and teachers. It was found that the parents and teachers tended to comprehensive academic adaptation of adolescents including all components, while the adolescents themselves did not pay specific attention to complex adaptation; all types of adaptation, according to their assessment, included two to three components. The difficulties of academic adaptation, as viewed by the learners with disabilities, were due to low communicative competence and poor learning motivation; while the parents explained this by limited health capacities, low communicative competence, the teenagers’ inadequate self-esteem, poor self-organisation and emotional self-regulation, non-consideration of child’s characteristics by the teachers; the teachers believed this to be a result of the teenagers’ health problems, their low communication competence and negative emotional experience. The results of the pilot study can form a basis for the development of technologies for psychological and pedagogical support of academic adaptation of adolescents with disabilities; these technologies are supposed to contribute to successful inclusion of a child in the educational environment.