The variety of kinds of activities and the intensive rhythm of life of the whole school don’t allow the child keep away from the classes and retire into his shell . The child is constantly in demand , his activity is in the public eye , and he is wanted by everybody . As a rule , the child himself needs the support of the group .

The very first group , where our student finds himself , is his first group at school , where the first acquaintance with social-cultural experience happens . In the process of interaction the teacher transmits his own activity to the student , arousing the student’s activity in return . The student can change the sense or emotional-evaluating aspect of the teacher’s motive and transmit it to the other student or back to the teacher. So in the united acting group the mechanism of mastering individual social cultural experience works .

The group work is held parallel with the individual training of behaviour habits , social everyday habits , assistance in solving actual behaviour problems with the use of wide vocational psychology .

Other kinds of groups are the groups of labour workshop or the creative group of the studio , art workshop , which unite the children for socially valuable joint activity and where each member has his own special role and responsibility , corresponding with his personal interests and abilities .

In this way , all the children go through the school of joint activity , because in the favourable psychological climate of the group the best opportunities for the process of integration and personalization are created . Such conditions and approaches in education do not contradict the idea of upbringing independent person , that is independence in the traditional Russian pedagogics and psychology is to be the result of personal development of the child in the course of long collaboration , work in the close emotional and social contacts with the grown-up , and later with all the child’s environment .

Social training and educating environment has one more important feature – it is changable .

The forming of the new structural elements , the use of the new approaches and methods of teaching , the inculcation of new organizational forms – all this exists and changes according to the new ideas , inquiries , needs of the students and the Children’s House on the whole .

Our task is to respond quickly to the new requirements and tendencies in the development of the Children’s House .

Let’s show some examples .The great increase of the number of children with severe multiple losses entailed studying and application of the other countries’ experience (the USA , the Netherlands , England ) , where there is serious success in educating and training such children . The methods of teaching , programmes and organization of life and activity of such children are essentially reconstructed in comparison with the traditional deaf-blind educative model in Russia .

The great attention was paid to formation of the means of communication based on the system of calenders . The construction of behaviour stereotype and the formation of self-service habits go on according to highly-structural timetable .The time devoted to the individual work with each student in the group was greatly increased . As a rule , in the group of four students the teacher and educator work simultaneously . During the teacher’s individual work with the student , the educator is responsible for the organization of the other students’ activity .

Here is another example . The presence of the great number of students over the age of 18 in the Children’s House ( according to the Status this is the age-limit of their staying here) induced the creation of the number of workshops , studios , production sections inside the Children’s House , and mainly , the creation of the labour team from the students and the organization of their life , education and spare time on the other , more independent basis .

This situation stimulated the construction of the new objects : the special hostel building for the senior students and the separate building for the production sections , greenhouse , hothouse . Right now there are some offers from businessmen to create joint productions on the basis of the House .

One more example : the long-lasting experiment of teaching painting deaf-blind with some vision resulted with choosing a few most gifted students . The art-studio was created , the professional deaf artist not only teaches there , but he also includes his students into the folk life of the ancient Russian town of Aleksandrov .Taking part in the folk performances , the children study history , traditions and ways of Motherland .

One of the students from this studio studies icon-painting , it may become his future profession . For his training the artist from the Trinity Lavra icon-painting workshop was invited .

Another example : the classes of clay work on the first stage of training totally deaf-blind served the necessary mean of studying the environment and was used as one of the possible means of communication , later it transformed into the pottery classes . The students’ works from this workshop are bought by the ceramics lovers .

The special atmosphere created in the Children’s House , integrates children with different structural losses . They live , study , work side by side , not separately .

We do not create special departments for the teen-ages with severe structural losses , for the children who started their education late , or for the children with cerebral paralasis , autistic children , or the children with verbal losses .Our principal position is that following some differences in the methods of teaching , timetable and equipment , education and life of such children are included into the whole process of life in the Children’s House , they are included into the emotional , social and everyday interaction with other categories of students .The formation of different habits is connected with the emotional sense of social or everyday situation , and is included into the natural relations of the multi-disabled child with the other students .

Such approach forms emotionally warm environment , friendly related to each student . The children learn more about themselves and the others , study the abilities , difficulties , behaviour pecularities , ways of communication , opportunities of assistance .The scenes of mutual help can be often observed : at the gathering congenitally deaf-blind

Mansur helps to hold Alex and Stas , who have cerebral paralasis , and it is hard for them to stand .