Kukuruza G. Psychological support of families with children of an early age with developmental disabilities

On the basis of an all-round medical study of 362 children at an early age (242 patients with developmental disabilities and 120 children with typical development ) and psychodiagnostic examination of 429 parents (189 parents of children with developmental disabilities), the structure of disorders in cognitive, motor, speech and socioemotional development was defined in children, and individual psychological characteristics and types of protective-coping behavior were identified in parents along with typologyzation of child-parent relationships. The relationship between the level of the child's development delay and the individual psychological characteristics of parents was established in our study. Qualitative features of cognitive, sensorimotor , speech, and socioemotional development were defined in children, depending on the availability in them of neurological and genetic pathology or autism spectrum disorders. A psychological model of an early intervention aiming at restoring and development of competencies in children with disorders, prevention of invalidization, improving quality of their life, and normalization of family life has been worked out, scientifically grounded and put into practice. Assessment of the effectiveness of the developed psychological model of early intervention has confirmed its validity.