Abstract:

At the present stage of development and formation of humanistic tendencies in the field of education, the social exclusion of children with special educational needs is increasingly attracting the attention of the world community. This problem is considered to violate the children’s rights, prevent the full development of their abilities, provoke socially negative consequences (behavioral disorders, bad habits, etc.), and lay a negative foundation, which in adolescence and adulthood can lead to profound personality degradation. Studying the causes and consequences of social exclusion of students in accordance with the conditions of this problem’s manifestation helped us to determine further steps to eliminating it.

The purpose of the research is to identify the depth of understanding of the social exclusion of students with special educational needs (hereinafter – SEN) by parents and teachers in general secondary education (hereinafter – GSE) institutions, which allows to form a model of prevention and overcoming its manifestations.

The main methods of research are the analysis and generalization of scientific and theoretical sources on this issue and practical research using the method of questionnaires. The study covered 110 people – 30 parents of children with SEN and 80 teachers of GSE.

The analysis of the results of the study gave grounds to identify a set of barriers in the education of children with SEN, who are at risk of social exclusion in GSE institutions: poor academic performance; unsatisfactory social competencies; inappropriate behavior of the child and a negative reaction from others; psychosomatic problems; an overwhelming feeling of unhappiness, a propensity to depression. Taking into account the attitude of parents and teachers to the problem of social exclusion of children with SEN, a comprehensive approach to overcoming it is proposed, which should be implemented involving not only teachers and parents but also group leaders, psychologists, and GSE leaders. The most relevant solution to the problem of social exclusion in GSE institutions gets to be a multidisciplinary team accompanying children with SEN, where each team member performs their immediate tasks and has the pre-configured process of interaction between all participants.

Keywords:

Special education, social exclusion, children with special educational needs, barriers in the education.