A study of conceptual thinking in young adolescents as a component of psychological readiness for the transition from primary to secondary school

Introduction . The article presents the results of an experimental study of the formation of conceptual thinking as a central psychological neoplasm of primary school age and a structural component of psychological readiness for the transition from primary to secondary school in younger adolescents with mental retardation in comparison with their peers with normal mental development. The period of transition from primary school to the basic level of education is one of the most difficult and has a certain specificity of the course of students with mental retardation in comparison with students with normal mental development. The formation of cognitive thinking as a component of psychological readiness for secondary school education in schoolchildren with ASD should be considered as one of the most important conditions for mastering educational material, further academic achievement, and the formation of the fundamental foundations of secondary school education. Materials and methods . The study involved 302 younger adolescents enrolled in 4th grade general education in Chelyabinsk; 86 out of 302 children have mental retardation The study of conceptual thinking was carried out using the methods of L.V. Tikhomirova and A.V. Basov, borrowed from the «Screening of the level of intellectual development of future fifth graders». To verify the reliability of the obtained research results, the χ2 criterion was applied at the ascertaining stage of the experiment, which made it possible to determine the level of statistical significance of differences between empirical samples. Results . In the course of the study, qualitative differences in the performance of diagnostic tasks by schoolchildren with mental retardation and with the norm of mental development were recorded; the features of the formation of the conceptual-logical, conceptual-categorical and conceptual-intuitive components of the conceptual thinking of students with mental retardation and with the norm of mental development were determined; the results of an experimental study revealed differences in the level of formation of the conceptual thinking of younger adolescents with mental retardation h and their peers with normal mental development, which are statistically significant (χ2 empirical =17.48 p < 0.05). Discussion and conclusions . The study showed that the peculiarities of conceptual thinking of younger adolescents with mental retardation are manifested in persistent difficulties in forming a conceptual categorization of educational concepts and terms, which may be due to a low level of mnestic processes and abstraction, as well as insufficient vocabulary of children in this category; moreover, the difficulties of the generalization process revealed, in which students with mental retardation focus on functional or situational signs indicate a delay in the formation of verbal and logical thinking, which may cause persistent difficulties in mastering the subject results of the educational program.