Gluschenko I. - Learning of figurative meaning of words and polysemy among children with mental retardation

Information about the author: Gluschenko Iryna Ivanivna, PhD in Education, Associate Professor of the Correctional Education Department of Kherson State University, Kherson, Ukraine. The range of scientific interests: the problem of diagnostics and correction of the lexical side of children’s speech of Lower Primary School age with mental retardation (MR) in conditions of inclusive education. 

The article deals with the problem of forming an understanding of figurative meaning of the word among junior school age children with intellectual disability in conditions of inclusive education. It takes into account the results of many modern and foreign studies, which show that most students of elementary school age with a mental retardation cannot find an essential feature of an object or phenomenon and transfer it to other objects.  The results of the research allowed to establish persistent disorders of the assimilation of the polysemy of words and to find out that the complexity of mastering the polysemy is determined not only by the insufficient level of semantic analysis, lexical system, thought operations, but also limited life experience of children with mental retardation. We have found that the complexity of mastering the ambiguity and understanding of the figurative meaning of the word is determined not only by the inadequate level of semantic analysis, lexical systematic, thought operations, but also by the limited life experience of children in this age. Thus, there was necessity in combination of work on the development of the above mentioned mental operations and the enrichment of the child's life and speech experience, which also affected the sequence of correctional training. On the basis of these provisions, we have proposed a comprehensive system of speech therapies, aimed at forming of understanding of the figurative word meaning and the polysemy of junior school children with mental retardation. The system of correction work is aimed at forming an understanding of the figurative meaning of the words among pupils of young school age with MR, which in the first stage contains the areas of children’s awareness of the essence of direct and figurative word meaning.  In the future the speech therapy exercises are aimed at revealing in the text of the word used in the figurative sense, finding out of its direct meaning and determining the most significant features of the subject (phenomenon), which is denoted by this word and the introduction of the word used in the figurative meaning, in an independent compound phrase or sentence. The methodology of polysemy forming is aimed at forming of analysis and comparison of certain features of objects and phenomena, the differentiation of polysemic words and the definition of the lexical similarity of words in context.  Particular attention is paid to the practical use of words polysemy in the independent speech of children with mental retardation of the junior school age. 

Key words: junior school age, mental retardation (MR), figurative meaning of the word, polysemy, logopedic work, lexical semantics.