The Use of Environmental Approach in the Work with Children with ASD

The insufficient development of adaptive strategies often hinders the reduction of stress, worsens the condition of the child and the family. Therefore, it is important to create special conditions for children that contribute to the gradual development of new situations, especially for children with autism spectrum disorders that have adaptation difficulties due to their developmental features. Professionals of the Center for Curative Pedagogy in Moscow build their work based on an environmental approach, which implies the formation of individual conditions for each child, aimed at mastering more and more new situations offered to the child and family by society. The article reveals the concept of the environment as a set of relations of a child with its surrounding reality: object and social. The types of environment are distinguished: comfortable, developing, stressful. The importance of creating a developmental environment for the full disclosure of the potential of the child is emphasized. Characteristics of various environments are given: spatio-temporal, emotional, semantic, which are individually selected for sessions with a child, depending on the tasks assigned to the work. The examples illustrating the work in line with the environmental approach are considered.

1. Bondar' T.A., Zakharova I.Yu., Konstantinova I.S., Positsel'skaya M.A., Ryazanova A.E., Yaremchuk M.V. Podgotovka k shkole detei s narusheniyami emotsional'no-volevoi sfery: ot individual'nykh zanyatii k obucheniyu v klasse. 6-e izd [Getting children with disruptions in emotional/volitional sphere ready for school: from individual classes to studying in a group]. Moscow: Publ. Terevinf, 2019. 281 p. ISBN 978-5-4212-0552-4.
2. Vygotskii L.S. Problema vozrasta [Problem of age]. In Vygotskii L.S. Psikhologiya [Psychology]. Moscow: Publ. EKSMO-Press, 2000. 1008 p. ISBN 5-04-004708-8.
3. Ermolaev D.V., Zakharova I.Yu. Sredovoi podkhod v rabote s det'mi s narusheniyami razvitiya emotsional'noi sfery [Environmental approachto working with children with disruptions of emotional development]. In Osobyi rebenok. Issledovaniya i opyt pomoshchi: nauchno-prakticheskii sbornik. Vyp. 5 [Special child. Research and experience of support: scientific and practical digest. Vol. 5]. Moscow: Publ. Terevinf, 2006. ISBN 978-5-4212-0358-2. Pp. 9–33.
4. Konstantinova I.S. Sredovoi podkhod v rabote s osobym rebenkom. Ustanovlenie kontakta i vovlechenie vo vzaimodeistvie na muzykal'nykh zanyatiyakh [Environmental approach in work with a special child. The setting of contactand engaging at music lessons]. Autizm i narusheniya razvitiya [Autism and Developmental Disorders (Russia)]. 2018, vol. 16, no. 3 (60), pp. 3–16. doi:10.17759/ autdd.2018160301.
5. Lisina M.I. Problemy ontogeneza obshcheniya [Problems of ontogenesis of communication]. In Lisina M.I. Obshchenie, lichnost' i psikhika rebenka [Communication, personality, and the psyche of a child]. Moscow; Voronezh: Publ. Institut prakticheskoi psikhologii, Izdatel'stvo NPO «MODEK», 1997. 384 p. ISBN 5-89395-027-5.
6. Nikol'skaya O.S., Baenskaya E.R., Libling M.M. Autichnyi rebenok. Puti pomoshchi [Autistic child. Ways of support]. Moscow: Publ. Terevinf, 2014. 288 p. ISBN 978-5-4212-0186-1.
7. Pedagogika, kotoraya lechit: Opyt raboty s osobymi det'mi [Pedagogics that heals: Experience of working with autistic children]. Moscow: Publ. Terevinf, 2008. 239 p. ISBN 978-5-901599-75-4.
8. El'konin D.B. Detskaya psikhologiya [Psychology of a child]. Moscow: Publ. Akademiya, 2005. 384 p. ISBN 5-7695-2405-7:3000.
9. Yanushko E.A. Igry s autichnym rebenkom. Ustanovlenie kontakta, sposoby vzaimodeistviya, razvitie rechi, psikhoterapiya [Playing with an autistic child. Estabilishing contact, ways of communication, speech development, psychotherapy]. Moscow: Publ. Terevinf, 2004. 135 p. ISBN 5-901599-21-7.