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ATTITUDE OF DIFFERENT SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC GROUPS’ REPRESENTATIVES TO CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES // Pedagogical Review. 2019. Issue 5 (27). P. 178-188

The article is devoted to the analysis of such social phenomenon as tolerance to children and adolescents with developmental disorders. It contains a fragment of research carried out by the authors during 2009–2017. Based on the analysis of the answers given by representatives of three socio-demographic groups (pupils in secondary schools, students of higher educational institutions, adults) to the author’s questionnaires their attitude to children with disabilities from four categories was studied: children with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, blind and visually impaired, deaf and hard of hearing. Adult respondents express less tolerant attitude to children with disabilities, in comparison with students and schoolchildren: 45.9 % object to teaching their children together with a child with developmental problems, 41.2 % speak out for separate education, 33.9 % object to joint extracurricular activities. 82.5 % of students and 76.6 % of adults are not ready to provide voluntary, even temporary, assistance. A comparative analysis of interaction with them in various spheres and situations is described. In general, the studied groups are characterized by differences in the answers to the questions, suggesting and not suggesting personal involvement in the situation of interaction with such a child, more pronounced in the responses of adult respondents. The differences in the level of tolerance, as in different social situations of interaction and in relation to different categories of children with disabilities were obtained.

Keywords: tolerance, schoolchildren, students, adults, children with mental retardation, hard of hearing and deaf children, children with cerebral palsy, visually impaired and blind children