Kiseleva, Marina E.

The article deals with the issue of ability to anticipate future events in preschool children with visual impairments. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the development of the prognostic ability in older preschool age makes it an important condition for the process of socio-psychological adaptation of children with disabilities, including preschoolers with impaired vision.

The aim of the study was to revial the specifics of future events anticipation in visually impaired preschool children.

The study involved 60 preschoolers aged 5 to 7 years, including 30 children with visual impairments and 30 children with unimpaired vision.

As a result of the analysis of structural and functional components, it was found that visually impaired preschoolers predict actions more often, and they also have a lower level of the speech-communicative function as compared to the one in their normo-typical peers. In children with visual impairments, the ability to anticipate manifests itself more successfully in organized activities, as well as in their relationships with parents, rather than with surrounding adults or children.

The study revealed the specifics of the ability to anticipate future situations in visually impaired preschoolers with speech impairments. It was found that children of this nosology experience real difficulties in forming a prognosis, since visually impaired preschoolers have a lower level of development in regulatory, cognitive and speech-communicative functions compared to the one of their peers without visual impairments. Preschoolers with visual impairments can set and hold goals, as well as cope with the mental replay of various options for actions and are aware of the consequences of their implementation in relation to themselves and people around them. However, they have difficulties in understanding and defining both their own emotions and the emotions of people around them in predictable situations.