DIAGNOSTIC METHODOLOGY OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITY DEVELOPMENT LEVELS IN ADOLESCENTS WITH MENTAL RETARDATION

Communication is a leading activity in adolescence. Due to the peculiarities of mentally retarded adolescents' cognitive sphere, they have certain complications in communication that affect socialization and adaptation processes, relationships with others. To create a technique of development and correction of communicative activity in adolescents with mental retardation it is necessary to determine communicative activity formation levels. However, studies analysed have proved that there is no complex diagnostic methodology of communicative activity. It determines the relevance of this research. The aim of the article is to illustrate peculiarities of creation of psychodiagnostic methodology for determining levels of communicative activity development in adolescents with mental retardation. To achieve the goal, the research methods to measure the range of techniques diagnosing mentally retarded adolescents' communicative activity, methods of mathematical statistics for validity and reliability verification, generalization of scientific and practical achievements have been used. 300 adolescents with mental retardation have been examined with the help of the final version of the developed methodology. Psychological diagnostic methodology of communicative activity development in adolescents with mental retardation in its final version consists of five scales. Due to the content of statements the first scale is defined as “communicative activity”. The second one is “communicative competence”. The third scale is “communicative culture”. The fourth one is “communicative behaviour”. The fifth scale is “self-control of personality in communicative activity”. Based on the used diagnostic tools, levels of communicative activity formation (high, medium, low) have been identified and characterized.