일반아동과 경도 정신지체아동의 상황, 조건, 인과관계에 대한 언어이해능력 비교 연구 (Linguistic understanding abilities on associative, conditional and causal relations: comparison study between children with and without mild mental retardation)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 이화여자대학교 특수교육연구소
· 수록지 정보 : 특수교육 / 1권 / 1호 / 47 ~ 69페이지
· 저자명 : 신종호

초록

아동의 언어이해능력은 학습능력과 직결되며 일반아동뿐만 아니라 경도 정신지체아동에게도 성공적인 통합교육을 위해 중요한 의미를 가진다. 본 연구에서는 경도 정신지체아동의 상황관계, 조건관계, 인과관계 언어이해능력의 발달 특징과 수준을 언어능력이 비슷한 일반아동과 비교하여 살펴보고자 하였다. 이를 위해 본 연구에는 통합교육에 참여하고 있는 초등학교 저학년 경도 정신지체아동 50명과 이들과 비슷한 언어능력을 가지고 있는 유치원 일반아동 49명이 참여하였으며, 이들의 언어이해능력을 측정하기 위해 본 논문의 주저자가 개발한 인지판단 그림검사를 사용하였다. 연구결과 경도 정신지체아동의 경우 일반아동과 마찬가지로 상황관계 언어이해능력이 조건관계나 인과관계 언어이해능력보다 높은 것으로 나타났다. 하지만 경도 정신지체아동의 경우 연령집단별 언어이해능력의 차이가 일반아동 집단과는 달리 유의미하게 나타나지 않았다. 마지막으로 상황관계, 조건관계, 인과관계 언어이해능력에 있어 경도 정신지체아동이 일반아동보다 낮은 수행수준을 나타내 보였으며, 이들의 수행수준은 일반아동 만4세 집단과 유사한 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구를 통해 얻어진 이들 연구결과들은 인지적 기초학습능력으로서 언어이해능력을 고려해 경도 정신지체아동의 성공적인 교육 통합을 계획, 실행하는 데 기초자료로서 응용될 수 있을 것이다.

영어초록

Linguistic-understanding abilities are an important foundation for cognitive development in early childhood and an influential basis for later school learning. The purpose of the study was to examine developmental features of children with mild mental retardation in linguistic-understanding abilities as compared with those of children who are normally developing with similar linguistics abilities.
Two research questions were specifically examined in the study. First, an investigation was conducted to examine whether differences among different types of linguistic understanding (associative, conditional, and causal relation understandings) were found within each group of children with and without disabilities. Second, it was examined whether significant differences existed in linguistic-understanding abilities between children with and without disabilities and how much the differences were.
Fifty children with mild mental retardation in grades one to four receiving educational services in integrated environments participated in the study. In addition, children without disabilities aged 4 to 6 were included for comparisons. Participants abilities of linguistic understanding were assessed with the Picture Test of Linguistic Abilities for Young Children developed by the first author of the study.
Results of the study show that children revealed the highest performance in the associative relation understanding, the next highest in the conditional relation understanding, and the lowest performance in the causal relational understanding both in children with and without disabilities. There were also significant differences between children with and without disabilities in linguistic-understanding abilities. Children with disabilities performed in all three types of linguistic understanding abilities at similar levels to those of normal children in age 4.
The results of the study suggest that children with mild mental retardation seem to have developmental delays in linguistic-understanding abilities by about 4.3 years. In addition, they seem to have more difficulties in understanding conditional and causal relations, as compared with associative, situational relations. These results suggest that more intense programs should be planned and delivered for children with mild disabilities to increase their understanding of conditional and causal relations in given information. Suggestions of the results were discussed in terms of facilitating successful educational integration of the mildly mentally retarded through increased understanding of their developmental characteristics of linguistic abilities as a learning tool.

참고자료

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