Children with profound retardation and their joint training with parents

ABSTRACT

The development of motor activity in children with profound mental retardation employing a special method based on mother/father dyads with her/his child is described. Both parent and child are jointly trained on the basis of a specific programme of lessons which is combined with a home training programme. The main advantages of the method are: high efficiency of lessons, effective instructions for home training, close emotional contact between parents and children, promotion of parents’ optimism and improvement of children's communication. Within this brief characterisation the content and organisation of joint training lessons are also described.