Mental development of deaf children in preschool age. Social and pedagogical conditions as an essential factor in the development of the psyche of a deaf child. Deafness in children and newborns

Children (as well as adults) can lose their hearing at different ages for one reason or another. Sometimes this happens before birth. If hearing loss occurs before the child has mastered speech, speech does not develop at all; If the baby was already able to speak when hearing loss occurred, he begins to lose speech and may become deaf and mute. Sometimes the lesion covers a very large part of the hearing organ, and then doctors talk about total deafness; if the affected area is smaller, then this hearing condition is classified by doctors as hearing loss, and children are called hard of hearing. Deaf-muteness is overcome thanks to the special organization of their lives. As a result, children remain deaf (or hard of hearing) by diagnosis, but become speaking. Their auditory perception of speech also develops intensively.

Deaf people are just like everyone else

Deaf children are completely ordinary children. They also love to run, play, dance, have fun and be naughty, experiment with different objects, build, sculpt and draw. But very often they have no one to play with. Parents of hearing children do not encourage them to communicate with deaf children, and sometimes even prevent such contacts. Why? Because an untrained, deaf child does not speak. Instead of articulate speech, he makes exclamations, sometimes uses gestures, and does not understand spoken speech. In this way, his behavior differs sharply from his peers with normal hearing, who, although due to age and cannot speak, understand addresses. And their inarticulate babble is perceived by others as something completely natural (“After all, he is still small!”). Such situations traumatize the parents of a deaf child, and over time the child himself begins to feel different from others. But hearing impairment, no matter how severe it may be, is not an insurmountable obstacle to a child’s learning to speak. All deaf children have some remnants of hearing, so appropriate perception must be developed even in cases where these remnants are minimal. When certain conditions are created, deaf children achieve a high level of development of both speech and hearing. Children with hearing loss should live with hearing people and have the same opportunities as them. This is one of the main tasks of teaching and raising such children. How can this goal be achieved?

Guide to action

First of all, it is necessary to identify the presence of hearing pathology in a child as early as possible (before a year, when speech is not yet developed). Do not neglect preventive examinations with an ENT doctor (in the first 2-4 months, in 1 year and thereafter - every six months). If parents have suspicions and it seems to them that the baby is behaving “differently from other children,” they should immediately contact a specialist. He will conduct an initial examination and, if necessary, refer you to a specialized medical center, where the baby will be more thoroughly examined. Otherwise, you can miss precious time, and it will be much more difficult to catch up. After consultation with an ENT doctor, examination and establishment of an accurate diagnosis, you should immediately purchase for your baby two hearing aids – one for each ear is required(preferably programmable or digital). Advice “to save money” to make do with one should be rejected immediately! Doctors must select an individual operating mode for the devices in the presence of the child. The baby is allowed to listen to various sound signals using devices and the responses to them are recorded. In addition, audiogram data is used when setting up the device. Hearing prosthetics is the most important condition for the full auditory-speech development of a deaf child. All children who are deaf or hard of hearing should wear hearing aids at all times. With their help, they will develop auditory perception and oral speech. But that is not all. As soon as the doctor makes a diagnosis, you should immediately begin special classes with the child. The sooner this process begins, the more successful the rehabilitation will be. Parents themselves will be able to conduct classes, under the guidance of specialists and with the help of teaching aids, which describe in great detail the types of classes and techniques with which you can teach a deaf child to speak.

How to conduct classes?

Oral speech development

No special objects are required to play with a deaf child. The most common toys are used - dolls, cars, animals, cubes, and so on. But the game should be real, and not turn into formal exercises. While operating with each toy, you need to momentarily bring it to your lips, placing it at chin level (so that the baby can see the articulation), and call the toy with a simple onomatopoeic word, for example: Lala, beep-bee, aw-aw, meow. The child perceives these words with the help of vision and the remainder of hearing, since he wears hearing aids. A daily repeating situation with the use of these toys, but in different play actions, will lead to the baby saying some word himself. After the first, a second, a third will appear... The pronunciation may turn out to be inaccurate, approximate, but this does not matter - the main thing is that the baby will begin to indicate the names of objects using speech. Later, babbling words need to be replaced with full-fledged, commonly used ones. Adults should specially organize play situations during which the child identifies actions, and parents denote them with words: walks, runs, sleeps, cries, eats... When the baby begins to use these words independently (even with approximate pronunciation), it’s time to use whole phrases, for example, mom is sitting, the car is driving, dad is walking, the dog is running... In this activity, the child simultaneously learns to speak and understand speech orally.

Reading training

In addition to oral speech, it is important to teach your child to read. Young children can be given signs with words written in block letters. At first, children perceive words holistically, they are not taught individual letters, and they do not read syllables. From the very first steps, reading becomes a meaningful process for them: behind every word there is an idea, an image. It is necessary to constantly work to ensure that children understood speech, because reading or repeating what another person said does not mean understanding.

Teaching writing

At the same time as reading, you should teach your child to write. You can write using markers in block letters on unlined album sheets. In this case, the baby freely places his hand on the sheet and can write letters of any size in any place and direction. Over time, the nature of the letter is streamlined, it becomes smooth and neat.

Development of auditory perception

Classes on the development of auditory perception are of particular importance. After all, wearing devices in itself does not give the desired effect - children need to be taught to listen to the sounds of the surrounding world, to speech, to isolate different elements in it, so that the structure of words perceived by ear is gradually clarified. Developing auditory perception helps deaf children better understand the spoken language of those around them. Classes to develop auditory perception should be conducted daily for 20-30 minutes for many years.

Learning to communicate fully

So, the children learned to speak, although their speech is peculiar and often resembles foreign speech. With the devices it is much easier for them to understand the people around them; already at preschool age they can read and write. And yet, kids still do not participate in games with other children. Why is this happening? Most likely, adults are too preoccupied with the educational side of a child’s life and do not think about his place in the microsociety. And you need to think about this from the moment you start classes. It is very important that parents did not hide their child's deafness in cases where others express surprise at the quality of his speech. After all, the cause of this is hearing loss, and not some terrible contagious disease. Required specifically create a space for a child-friendly attitude . Not only relatives, but also acquaintances and closest neighbors in the house should know that parents are working with the baby, teaching him to speak, listen, and understand the speech of others. What if from time to time demonstrate them baby's success in the accumulation of words, writing, reading, drawing, making handicrafts, dancing or mastering physical exercises, the positive effect will not be long in coming. The normal behavior of a child attracts not only adults to him, but also children, arouses sympathy and a desire to “be friends” - at least to play. Speech recedes into the background, but during the game it becomes absolutely clear that deaf child speaks (even if he does not speak fluently), the situation helps. The wall of misunderstanding is destroyed, communication becomes free and natural. It is important that the number of friends a deaf child has increases. For this, it is useful for parents not to be content with playing in the yard from time to time. invite hearing children to your home and organize some interesting activities for the whole company and games. This way, a deaf child will become closer and more interesting to other children, because he can do a lot, comes up with interesting games, and explains how to play them. Parents need to cultivate in a child such qualities as kindness, willingness to help other people, and attentiveness to others. His successful adaptation in society largely depends on these character traits. Therefore, a child needs such qualities bring up . For example, you can take a treat with your baby to neighbors on the occasion of a family holiday, when you meet, ask a friend how he is feeling, or invite the baby to make a handmade gift for one of your relatives or friends for his birthday.

Fostering independence

Gradually, from a relatively narrow circle of acquaintances, the child moves into a much wider space. And the family must properly prepare for this transition. At first, the baby simply goes to the store with his parents, and they include him in the shopping process. For example, dad pays money, and son or daughter receives goods from the seller. Later, the child will have to go shopping himself. First, parents should discuss and talk with him about the vocabulary that will need to be used when purchasing this or that thing. In order for the new manifestation of independence to be successful, it is better for parents to warn the seller in advance that a deaf child will come to him. In this case, the child will be understood correctly, and will not be reprimanded for incorrect pronunciation. Since now there are many shops, tents, and kiosks near our houses, residents of the area and sellers, as a rule, know each other. Therefore, an agreement will not be so difficult. Gradually, the child will master nearby retail outlets and new forms of behavior for him.

Hello big world!

The older a deaf child gets, the more opportunities he has for inclusion in society. He becomes a subscriber to the library, visits museums, theaters with an understandable repertoire, even concerts for children. Parents should also prepare all these events in advance. The child must be told where he will go, what he will see there, and introduced to new words; he is also prepared for correct behavior in museums and theaters. Upon returning home, you should talk with your child again, discuss him and your impressions of the exhibition or performance. Thus, deaf children are introduced to culture on the one hand, and integrated into society on the other. Obviously, attending kindergarten also contributes to full communication. A deaf child must take an active part in concerts for parents, holiday matinees and other similar events. He can read poems, dance, play some musical instrument . This is also an important step in the socialization of children with hearing impairments - publicity teaches children to overcome shyness and fear of a large audience. Very useful for the socialization of deaf children excursions and hikes , in which family acquaintances and friends of the child participate. Under these conditions, he learns to act in a group, in a team; learns to subordinate his interests and desires to the desires and interests of others. The child’s understanding of the world around him expands, and the child’s speech improves, because he communicates with a large number of speaking and hearing people of different ages. Great benefit for deaf children participation in the work of clubs and sections . Such kids must study in them independently, communicating with the teacher and other children without parental participation . Adults can be interested in their child’s success by communicating directly with the head of the circle or section. The implementation of the described models of education and inclusion of deaf and hard of hearing children in society will help them grow up liberated, open to contacts, and independent. Some deaf children know one or even several foreign languages ​​and study music. Many study in regular schools and vocational schools together with hearing peers, study at universities (at law, economics and other faculties), and can successfully work in a variety of positions. Thus, subject to certain conditions, deaf and hard of hearing children become full-fledged members of society. The main thing is to help them overcome difficulties and become masters of their destiny. Good morning!

Hearing is an important component in a child’s development. It also depends on him whether the child will be able to acquire the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for life, and whether abstract-logical thinking will mature. Complete deafness is rare in children. As a rule, residual hearing is preserved. More often, hearing loss occurs, in which it is possible to recognize loud speech: hearing is partially lost.

If you discover problems with hearing perception in a child, consult a doctor immediately. The doctor will determine the causes and select the appropriate treatment.

Signs of deafness are noticeable without any special equipment, starting from the birth of a child. Pay attention to warning signs:

• the newborn does not get scared, does not flinch from a sudden loud noise, does not freeze when he hears a voice;
• until the age of six months, the child does not open his eyes wide at an unexpected loud sound;
• a child at the age of 4 months does not find the source of noise, does not turn his head towards the sound, and humming does not appear;
• babbling does not occur until 5 months;
• does not respond to his name after 5 months;
• by 8 - 10 months the baby does not pronounce syllables;
• does not speak simple words by one year of age;
• the child often asks again, comes close to the sound source to hear (TV, radio, toy).

Causes

The reasons can be divided into three groups:

• hereditary Deafness occurs due to a disorder in the chromosomes that are passed along with genes from parent to child;
• congenital. Congenital deafness appears when the fetus is exposed to unfavorable factors during the mother's pregnancy (taking alcohol, drugs, certain medications, smoking, low fetal weight, infectious diseases of the pregnant woman) or damage during childbirth (forceps application, hypoxia);
• purchased . This includes injuries (mechanical, long-term exposure to noise) and ear diseases (measles, meningitis, mumps, otitis media) suffered after birth.

Many parents do not think about why children are born with hearing impairments and what to do to avoid problems. Consider the causes of deafness. Give up bad habits and self-medication, see an obstetrician-gynecologist during pregnancy.

Degree of hearing loss

A person loses hearing partially (hearing loss) or completely (deafness). In the first case, it recognizes loud conversational speech. In case of deafness, amplification of sound does not affect the intelligibility of what is said. There are 4 degrees of hearing loss. They differ in the distance at which a person hears ordinary and whispered speech.

1. For the first degree it is 3 - 6 and 1 - 3 meters, respectively. The disorder manifests itself in the fact that the child often asks questions and does not understand what is said in a noisy environment.
2. For the second - 4 meters. A person understands whispered speech spoken near the ear. Parents notice that the baby avoids contact and answers questions and requests in monosyllables. Speech development is delayed, vocabulary is poor, words are pronounced incorrectly.
3. For the third - 1 meter. Whispers are not recognized. The baby does not try to speak and ignores calls.
4. For the fourth - a cry in the ear. There is no own speech. This condition borders on deafness. However, unlike the latter, grade 4 hearing loss is treatable.

With deafness, a person hears sound vibrations with a force of over 91 decibels at a rate of 0 to 25 dB. There are no degrees of deafness.

Deaf-mute

It is necessary to distinguish between the concepts “deaf” and “deaf-mute”. Deafness does not imply muteness. The absence of speech in deaf-muteness is due to disturbances in auditory perception and the speech apparatus (damage to the vocal cords, palate, tongue, etc.). In special kindergartens and schools, deaf people are taught to use their voice and lip reading to communicate, in addition to learning sign language. In this case, deafness occurs:

• congenital. If a baby was born deaf, then without special training he will remain mute;
• acquired . With hearing loss, after gaining speech, the child gradually stops talking.

Diagnostics

To diagnose young children, audiometry is used, offered to the baby in the form of a game (toys and pictures with sound). Observe fixation on sound sources located at a certain distance from each other. It is noted whether a conditioned reflex to sound is developed when certain images are presented. They use hardware methods that record auditory evoked potentials.

Treatment

It is impossible to cure deafness. For residual hearing use:

• drugs to improve blood supply, metabolism, conduction of nerve impulses in the ear and brain;
• sound amplification devices;
• installation of a cochlear implant. The operation must be performed if the child perceives sounds with a volume below 80 dB.

Hearing loss in any child is not a reason to give up. Complete hearing loss if the auditory analyzer is damaged or underdeveloped cannot be cured. Pay attention to signs of damage and consult a doctor if they appear. The doctor will identify the causes of the disorder and prescribe individual treatment. Teachers of the deaf in kindergartens and schools for the deaf and hard of hearing will teach the child to use voice and lip reading to communicate.

In the first months of life, a deaf child differs little from children with intact hearing. He may be somewhat calmer than hearing children, since many of the sounds that accompany the life of his family, and those that abound on the street, affect him to a small extent, and for hearing children they often cause irritation, fear, and disturb sleep.

A child who is deaf from birth usually has remnants of hearing in the range of low and medium sound frequencies. This gives him the ability to hear loud, low sounds. In loud speech, he can only distinguish individual vowel sounds and some syllables that are clearly pronounced. If adults care little about the mental development of a deaf child, his perception of the environment turns out to be poorer than that of a hearing child, not only because he perceives few influences by hearing, but also because his visual perception is impoverished: his attention is not attracted by sounding objects , and he does not look at them, that is, he does not perceive them visually.

The revitalization complex that appears in the third month of a child’s life can be quite rich in its manifestations or hardly noticeable. It depends on the behavior of the mother communicating with the child and other close people. If they actively express joy not only with speech addressed to the child, which he almost does not hear, but also with benevolent facial expressions, affectionate gestures, friendly movements of the hands, and the whole body, then the child also joyfully reacts to their manifestations with body movements, a smile, and sounds made.

Deaf children usually walk at the same time as hearing children, but gradually become silent, and babbling does not occur in them unless adults specifically cause it.

If a deaf child does not have additional organic damage, he begins to walk at the end of the first year of life or at the beginning of the second (at 10-14 months). He masters the space of the rooms, their position relative to each other, and becomes newly acquainted with objects located in different rooms of the apartment. Then he gradually begins to develop the space near his home. The child uses pointing gestures addressed to an adult if he wants to better see a new object; uses gestures that outline objects and gestures that imitate the most important actions for him. If parents themselves have hearing impairment, then they use sign language when communicating with their child. Thus, he learns many gesture designations of individual objects, actions, signs of objects, some natural phenomena, and relationships between people.

A deaf child living in a deaf environment by the age of three masters sign language, which allows his parents or other people to communicate with him. With the help of sign language, he can express his needs and desires, difficulties that arise, a request to another person for some object, his attitude to a particular situation. In other words, sign language in a deaf child plays the role of a means and method of social communication, which at this stage of life contributes to his comprehensive mental development.

The mental development of children with hearing impairment in preschool age significantly depends on what kind of deaf-pedagogical assistance they receive. Many children from 2 to 3 years old, and sometimes from 4 years old, attend special children's institutions (nurseries, preschool groups at schools), where they are given special classes in the form of games to develop subject-related practical activities (everyday life, constructive, visual arts). ), speech and musical hearing, different types of speech, rhythmic and physical skills. The currently implemented program for the education and training of children with hearing impairments is aimed at their comprehensive psychophysical development.

By the time they enter school, children attending special preschool educational institutions can actively use in speech designations of objects in their immediate environment, familiar actions, some characteristics of objects, spatial and temporal relationships; correctly express in speech some reasons for actions and actions. However, their speech is replete with violations of the grammatical structure of the language (errors of agreement and control, incorrect use of the aspect and tense of verbs, etc.). Often there is an unlawful narrowing or, on the contrary, expansion of the meaning of a word.

Thanks to the research of I.M. Solovyov, devoted to the problem of interaction between analyzers when perceiving the surrounding reality, it was found that disruption of one analyzer, such an important one as auditory or visual, negatively affects the activity of intact analyzers. Hearing impairment reduces the fullness of visual perception, complicates the development of kinesthetic sensitivity, and especially kinesthesia of the speech organs.

A certain originality is found in the development of figurative memory in deaf children. The studies of M. M. Nudelman and I. M. Solovyov show that deaf children, with greater difficulty than hearing children, capture images of objects in all their originality. They tend to either simplify the external structure of the perceived object, liken it to a previously established, habitual idea, or overemphasize its distinctive features. Similar changes in the images of objects are observed during their kinesthetic perception (T.V. Rozanova).

The verbal memory of deaf children is unique. Deaf children are relatively more successful at remembering individual words than whole sentences, and the worst at remembering connected texts. At primary school age, deaf children experience difficulties in retaining the sound-letter composition of a word; they allow omissions of letters, rearrangements of syllables, and confusion of words that are similar in sound-letter composition (R. M. Boskis, T. V. Rozanova). When initially becoming acquainted with words, children often confuse their meaning with other words that have a close subject relationship or sound-letter similarity.

Research by V. Pietrzak, conducted with deaf and hearing preschoolers and schoolchildren, showed that in deaf children’s understanding of emotional states and the causes that cause them, dependencies are observed that are also characteristic of normally developing children. Children more easily recognize emotional states that are clearly externally expressed in a well-known life situation. Deaf children, like hearing children, correctly recognize the most common emotional states related to the modalities of joy, anger, fear and sadness. Great difficulties arise when recognizing intellectual and social-moral feelings. Children more often identify actions that are clearly externally expressed as causes of emotions.

Gradually, as they learn, by the age of 13-14, deaf children improve their ability to recognize emotions and feelings, as well as identify the reasons that cause them. Deaf teenagers master many concepts related to emotional states and social and moral feelings. But in general, they still have difficulties understanding the relationships between a person’s emotional states and the life situations that give rise to them.

It is important to understand how deaf children feel about their hearing impairment. According to a study by M. M. Nudelman, many deaf schoolchildren aged 10-12 do not understand how their lack of hearing will affect the choice of their future profession, they do not realize that the choice of profession is limited (that they cannot be, for example, doctors, artists in ordinary theaters, radio and television announcers, teachers in public schools). At an older age (13-15 years old), deaf schoolchildren often begin to become painfully aware of their defect and the consequences of impaired hearing - unintelligibility of speech, inability to communicate with others. For some teenagers, awareness of their defect is one of the reasons for depression and even mental illness.

For deaf high school students (16-18 years old), a different - active - position in relation to life is more typical. Many of them have a great desire to better master speech, especially oral speech, in order to understand other people in different social environments and be able to communicate with them. In addition, deaf boys and girls begin to read more, become interested in different areas of knowledge, and turn to adults for help in order to understand issues that are difficult for them (E. A. Viitar, T. E. Puik, Zh. I. Shif). Since the beginning of the introduction of a new program of special classes for the development of auditory perception in schools for the deaf, many deaf high school students, with great diligence and emotional enthusiasm, strive to learn to hear as best as possible with the help of sound-amplifying equipment and thereby partially overcome their main defect - hearing impairment.

The self-esteem of deaf children 7-11 years old is very unstable, it depends on the situation, on the assessments of their educational activities and individual actions by teachers and educators (V.L. Belinsky, T.N. Prilepskaya).

By the beginning of middle school age (11 - 12 years old), deaf children begin to develop companionship. But at first they consider as their comrades those children with whom they spend time together and do something together.

Deaf students' understanding of companionship deepens between the ages of 13 and 15. Teenagers see in a peer not only a play partner, they begin to value a comrade as an accomplice in generally useful work. At this age, the importance of the internal qualities of a comrade is realized - kindness, caring for another, readiness to help him.

Thus, throughout school age, deaf children’s relationship with other people significantly expands and deepens. Usually this contributes to the development of interpersonal relationships, the growth of not only consciousness, but also the moral behavior of deaf students and school graduates.

To understand the personality of deaf children, it is also important to characterize their interests, inclinations and abilities.

Research by N.G. Morozova prove that at primary school age (7-10 years old) deaf children show the greatest interests and inclinations towards various games and sports activities (skating, skiing, gymnastics, running, jumping, etc.). Educational activities are attracted mainly by the external aspect (staying in the classroom, performing various educational tasks). At the same time, children usually treat all academic subjects with equal diligence.

At the beginning of middle school age (11-13 years old), students continue to show inclinations towards various games and sports activities. In addition, there is an interest in visiting the cinema, theater, drawing, and dancing. A differentiated attitude towards academic subjects is revealed. Some prefer mathematics, others prefer reading or doing work. At the same time, interest in a particular subject is closely related to the personality and activities of teachers and educators.

Deaf students at the age of 13-15 and especially at the age of 16-18 (middle and high school) have an increasing interest in literature, geography and biology and a decreasing interest in mathematical sciences. The latter is associated with great difficulties in mastering such abstract subjects as algebra and geometry, due to underdevelopment of conceptual thinking and often large gaps in mathematical knowledge caused by deficiencies in the primary grades.

The high achievements of deaf people in various fields of labor, artistic, pedagogical and scientific activities indicate great opportunities for the development of their abilities and psyche in general (A. P. Gozova and others).

Introduction

Radical transformations in all spheres of social life required an urgent need for a deep rethinking of the existing system of upbringing and education of the younger generation. Continuing education should become an integral part of every person's lifestyle. Comprehensive development of the individual, maximum realization of everyone’s abilities is his main goal. The realization of this lofty goal is expected at school as the initial stage of personality development, the formation of a scientific worldview, ideological maturity, and political culture. It is at school that such qualities of a citizen as social responsibility, self-discipline, respect for the law, and self-government skills should be developed. The modern school faces the task of revising the content, improving the methodology and organization of educational work, and implementing an integrated approach to the matter of education.

The need for an integrated approach to education has found some development in the theory and practice of domestic pedagogy. Thus, recently in the theory of pedagogy, an integrated approach to education has been justified as one of the leading principles of education. There is no doubt that in the near future the theoretical foundations of an integrated approach will be developed in connection with the creation of an integral system of lifelong education. In connection with the above, an urgent need arose for scientific substantiation of an integrated approach to specially organized education and training of children with hearing impairments.

In defectology there is such a section as deaf pedagogy (from the Latin Surdo - deaf) - the science of upbringing, education and training of children with hearing impairments (deaf, hard of hearing, late deaf). Deaf pedagogy develops on the basis of the principles of general pedagogy. Based on the psychophysiological and pedagogical characteristics of children with hearing impairments, deaf pedagogy develops a system of special education and training, principles for organizing special educational institutions. Special education and training ensures the comprehensive development of the spiritual and physical strength of children with hearing impairments, equipping them with knowledge of the basics of science, preparing them for work and life in a hearing environment. Deaf pedagogy is closely related to related sciences: psychology, otolaryngology, speech therapy, physiological acoustics, linguistics, as well as electronics and radio engineering in connection with the development and use of residual auditory function of students. Deaf pedagogy includes the theory of education and training of children with hearing impairments of preschool and school age, the history of deaf pedagogy, private methods in general education subjects, and deaf psychology. In Ukraine, children of preschool and school age with hearing impairments are raised and educated in government institutions included in the general public education system.

It should be said that the problem of an integrated approach to the upbringing and education of deaf children (we will further consider only this category of children with hearing impairments) has not yet been specifically considered in the theory of deaf pedagogy. We made an attempt to highlight this urgent problem, but it most likely reflected a methodological and recommendatory nature. However, it would be a big mistake and injustice to say that an integrated approach to the problems of deaf pedagogy arose literally today. Special education and training of deaf children as special types of activity are unthinkable without the existence of an integrated approach to them.

First of all, you need to decide what the concept of an “integrated approach” itself means. Literally, the word “complex” (Latin) means connection, combination. There is also a slightly different interpretation of the word, “complex” is “a collection of objects, phenomena or properties that form one whole.” We consider it appropriate to give an interpretation of the concept of “complex” in science, which is directly related to our problem, in psychology - “Complex in psychology is a certain unification of individual mental processes into one whole” or “... a group of heterogeneous mental elements connected by a single affect.” Thus, a complex is understood as a set of components of a phenomenon or process that mutually complement, enrich and ensure its integral qualitative existence or functioning.

The concept of an integrated approach to education is based on the position of the dialectical unity of the individual and the general, the part and the whole, the universal connection of phenomena and their integrity is expressed.

The philosophical position about a holistic approach to the phenomenon being studied, about the comprehensiveness of its study through the establishment of interdependencies and interrelations of its individual constituent parts, sides, that in each individual there is an immanent feature, the essence of the general, and vice versa - each individual, organically intertwined into the general, at the same time and acquires the essential properties of the general, and enriches it qualitatively with its characteristics - this dialectical position constitutes the methodological basis of the whole, i.e. an integrated approach to education, to the problem of comprehensive development of the individual in the process of education.

Education as a phenomenon, an object of knowledge, a type of activity, relationships, art itself can act both as a general, and as a separate, and as a part, a structural element of an integral system of a higher order, an organization - society. In this sense, the essence of an integrated approach to education will be to ensure the unity and integrity of such complexes:

1. Unity and interconnection of objective circumstances of education;

2. The personality structure of the person being educated;

3. Education as a type of activity of the subject of education;

4. Education as a science.

As we see, an integrated approach is a truly scientific approach to understanding such a complex phenomenon as education. It is applicable and works effectively when considering phenomena, objects of reality, relationships, activities, etc. all systems and levels. In this sense, the integrated approach works as a universal requirement, as a law. When considering an integrated approach to education, it acquires the rank of a fundamental principle, reflecting the main, essential aspects of the educational process, which determines the final result - the comprehensively harmonious development of the individual.

The above understanding of the essence of an integrated approach to education is entirely applicable when considering the problems of raising deaf children in a special school. Moreover, the requirement to implement an integrated approach to the specially organized education of deaf children is even more mandatory than in a general education school. To be fair to what has been said, let us consider a number of complexes, naturally conditionally identified by us above, which in reality are closely interconnected and thereby determine the need for an integrated approach to the education of deaf children.

The first complex is the unity and interconnection of the objective circumstances of education. These include, firstly, those circumstances that reflect the structure of society, its life processes - material, political, spiritual. Our society is a society in which public ownership of the means of production still prevails, where all its members, including the deaf, are guaranteed constitutional freedoms and rights, and where illiteracy has been eradicated. Economics, politics, ideology, education, upbringing, and the spiritual life of society - everything is aimed at developing the productive forces and production relations characteristic of a truly democratic society.

Objective circumstances, firstly, also include a person’s immediate environment. For deaf children, this is primarily family and school. As already noted, the system of special education and upbringing of deaf children is included in the general education system. The country provides universal differentiated education for deaf children, provides them with work upon graduation, and in case of special academic success, provides them with the opportunity to receive secondary, specialized secondary and higher education.

Thus, the objective circumstances of the specially organized process of raising deaf children, in a broad sense the environment in a structural and functional sense, are extremely complex and diverse. Each of their components can be, when examined separately, represented by a chain of systems, subsystems, components and elements that have a corresponding impact on the result of education. But no matter how different the objective circumstances may be in their structure, nature, and functions, they are all essentially humanistic and democratic. In this sense, they objectively presuppose precisely the reproduction of themselves and an adequate person in the process of education. It is this circumstance that is an extremely important prerequisite for the successful implementation of an integrated approach to education in a special school for the deaf. In his work, a teacher of the deaf can and should make maximum use of the wide educational opportunities of the environment in an integral unity for organizing and conducting the educational process for the purpose of the comprehensive development of a deaf student.

The second complex is the personality structure of the person being educated. Structurally, personality is a totality, an integral unity of biological, psychological and social. The understanding of the biological essence of a deaf person is based on a philosophical position about man as a directly natural being.

Natural features (a certain level of biological organization, the human brain, the human nervous system) are the most important prerequisites for mental development. The driving forces and factors in the development of a deaf person are not his human natural characteristics, but the totality of social relations that he assimilates and changes from the first days of life (family, school education, training and upbringing in a special school, socially useful work activity).

The founder of modern Russian psychology and defectology L.S. Vygotsky made a great contribution to the study of the personality of an abnormal child, to substantiating the problem of compensation for the defect in the process of specially organized upbringing and training of abnormal children. He argued that blind and deaf people feel their inferiority not biologically, but socially. “What ultimately decides the fate of an individual is not the defect itself, but its social consequences, its socio-psychological organization.” That is why “the speaking deaf-mute, the working blind, participants in common life in all its fullness, will not themselves feel inferiority and will not give others a reason for this. It is in our hands to ensure that deaf, blind and mentally retarded children are not handicapped. Then this very word disappears, a sure sign of our own defect.” L. S. Vygotsky’s position that “a child with a defect is not yet a defective child”, “that blindness, deafness, etc., in themselves, private defects do not make their bearer defective”, “that “substitution and compensation" as a law, arises in the form of aspirations where there is a defect" played a big role in the development of the theory and practice of modern pedagogy of the deaf. It serves as the basis for the inexhaustible humanism and optimism of domestic defectologists. Evidence of this is the fact that in the conditions of modern reality, unlimited all-round development of deaf children is possible.

A person who is deaf from birth cannot master the language of words without special training from a teacher of the deaf and a speech pathologist. Having intact intellect and all other analyzers except the auditory one, he is able to develop on the basis of sign speech. However, sign language cannot replace verbal speech. Therefore, the thinking of a deaf person, untrained in the language of words, remains at the level of reflection of real reality and is of a concrete, visual-figurative nature. The development of the compensatory forces of a deaf person’s body without learning the language of words is very, very limited. A deaf person without a tongue remains mute. The healthy forces of the body, intellectual, spiritual, emotional-volitional, motivational and practical spheres of it as a potential personality do not receive proper development. This determines the social status of a deaf person. Remaining human by nature (biologically), he remains aloof from a full life in human society and is practically in social isolation. Overcoming a physical illness - deafness and its consequence - dumbness - is possible only by teaching a deaf person the language of words as a means of communication, cognition and thinking. This is the most difficult and special task, which can only be solved in conditions of special education and training of deaf children.

Teaching language to deaf children is a highly complex problem! This is a subject for special consideration. However, without fundamental principles, we will not be able to give a true picture of the personality of a deaf person. For the language of words, verbal speech for a deaf person plays a decisive role in the development of his biological, mental and social essence, contributes to his comprehensive development as a social personality.

When it comes to language acquisition by a hearing child, a distinction is made between oral and written forms of verbal speech. In the same order, mastery of the language of words occurs in a normal hearing child. A hearing child perceives speech addressed to him by ear and reproduces it by imitation. Entering into various relationships with elders and others like himself, he practically masters the language of words, learns about the world around him, and develops both biologically and socially. The biological and social is not the sum of two components, but an interconnected, interdependent, indivisible, integral unity-complex.

A deaf child is in different conditions compared to a hearing child. He cannot perceive spoken language by ear. Therefore, it is necessary to create conditions for him that correspond to his nature. We need workarounds to master the language of words. In the modern didactic system of teaching language to deaf children, according to the principle of forming speech communication (S.A. Zykov), three forms of verbal speech are distinguished: dactylic, oral and written. As the initial form of speech, which most fully corresponds to the nature of a deaf child, the finger, visually perceived form of verbal speech is used - the dactyl form. Each dactylem corresponds to a specific letter of the alphabet. The teacher of the deaf, using sound-amplifying equipment, clearly pronounces the word with its articulation as clearly as possible, simultaneously and conjugately “pronounces” (dactylizes) it with his fingers, and presents the deaf person with a card with this word. A deaf person imitates a word by fingerprint and orally by pronunciation. This word correlates with an object, its property or action that it denotes. This is the most general, schematic way of teaching verbal speech to a deaf child. We present it in order to demonstrate the action of the mechanism for compensating for missing hearing in the conditions of special language training for the deaf.

Firstly, a deaf person perceives spoken word visually. He is specially trained to read oral speech from the face. Secondly, he learns dactyl speech. During fingerprinting, the child develops muscular kinesthesia of the hand. For a deaf person, speaking with a hand is not just a matter of moving the fingers. At the same time, the development of higher mental and physiological processes of the cerebral cortex, the functions of the central higher and peripheral nervous systems occurs. When fingering a deaf person, strong neurodynamic connections are formed between the kinesthesia of the hand, the articulatory apparatus and the cerebral cortex. Thirdly, while articulating, the child develops the speech-motor apparatus, voice formation, speech breathing, and corresponding reflex activity occurs. Fourthly, thanks to sound amplification equipment, the child develops auditory perception of the spoken word, its phonetic image. Fifthly, the deaf child reads the word from the card presented by the teacher of the deaf, while mastering the written form of speech. in the process of pedagogically expedient activity, deaf children, using the same speech material, comprehensively acquire the dactyl written and oral forms of speech. The language of words is acquired by deaf children in the process of live direct communication, i.e. when performing the main social function.

The compensating role of language is enormous and comprehensive. By developing mental activity as a function of a special part of matter called the human brain, language helps to overcome the consequences of deafness, the development of social and biological parameters of the personality of a deaf person, and the most complete integration and adaptation of him among the hearing people as an equal worker of society.

Thus, with an integrated approach to the personality of a deaf person in a specially organized educational process, it is possible to achieve higher forms of compensation, expressed in creating the opportunity for the comprehensive development of students. It involves mastering, on the basis of the language of words, knowledge of the fundamentals of science, the formation of a scientific worldview, the development of the ability to apply knowledge in practice, the readiness and ability for systematic work, the development of high socially valuable and moral qualities of the individual.

The third complex is education as a type of activity of the subject of education. In a modern general education special boarding school for deaf children, social education of students is carried out. In terms of its goals and objectives, the education of deaf schoolchildren basically coincides with the general principles of pedagogy. the goal of social education of deaf children includes the comprehensive development of the individual based on the mobilization of compensatory capabilities, the complete overcoming of the consequences of deaf-muteness for healthy mental and physical development; mastering scientific and technical knowledge based on the formation of the language of words as a means of thinking and cognition; studying the basics of production and instilling in the child labor skills in the chosen specialty; formation of qualities of universal morality and skills of cultural behavior in a team. This goal involves preparing deaf and mute children as active participants in social development, able to overcome difficulties and capable of participating in the creation of public and personal benefits on an equal basis with hearing people.

The high goal of social education of deaf children and its achievement in the real process of education presuppose high quality of education. Even L. S. Vygotsky ardently defended the need for special social education of abnormal children, pointing out that the special education of abnormal children requires “special pedagogical technology, special methods and techniques,” and also that “only the highest scientific knowledge of this technology can to create a real teacher in this field.” He emphasized that “we must not forget that we must educate not the blind, but the child first of all. To educate a blind and deaf person means to educate blindness and deafness, and to turn it from a pedagogy of children’s defectiveness into a defective pedagogy.” In these deepest thoughts of L.S. Vygotsky contains the quintessence of specially organized education of deaf children. The teacher must be a defectologist-teacher of the deaf with a higher education in deaf pedagogy. Based on deep knowledge of general and special pedagogy and psychology, he must, focusing on the real capabilities of the deaf person, in accordance with the goal of social education, plan the work. The surodopedagogue must act competently, using correct, effective methods of educational work. He must see a deaf student first of all as a person. The personality of a deaf student should become a kind of geometric locus of points of specially organized upbringing and training. The teacher, as a subject of education, in his work constantly faces a complex of feelings, moods, experiences of his pupils and his own. Deafness naturally evokes feelings of pity and compassion. Great humanist, L.S. Vygotsky saw the highest manifestation of humanism not in the educator or teacher showing condescension and concessions, focusing their work on the defect, but, on the contrary, in the fact that they create, within reasonable limits, difficulties for deaf children in the process of their upbringing and education, teach them to overcome these difficulties, and thereby developed the personality, its healthy forces. Speaking about special education, he emphasized: “Toughening and courageous ideas are needed here. Our ideal is not to cover the sore spot with cotton wool and protect it by all means from bruises, but to open the widest possible path for overcoming the defect, its overcompensation. To do this, we need to understand the social orientation of these processes.”

L. S. Vygotsky’s ideas on ways to develop special education and training of deaf children were further developed in the theory and practice of national education of the deaf (N.D. Yarmachenko, R.M. Boskis, A.I. Dyachkov, N.F. Zasenko S. A. Zykov, T. S. Zykova, E. P. Kuzmicheva, E. N. Martsinovskaya, I. V. Koltunenko, L. P. Noskova, M. I. Nikitina, Zh. I. Shif, etc. ). The question of choosing the right paths, the appropriate content of effective forms and methods of educational work in a school for the deaf is one of the central problems of an integrated approach to education.

Complex four - education as a science. Social education must be a strictly scientific system. Its foundation and methodological basis is dialectical, scientific philosophy. Public education of deaf children is a truly humanistic system. In our modern society, for the first time in the history of mankind, the dominant national system of special education sets as its goal the comprehensive and harmonious development of citizens who are deaf. Thanks to the unity of objective and subjective factors, social education acts as a single, holistic, comprehensive system for educating deaf children. This contributes to the most complete compensation of deafness and comprehensive preparation of graduates of a special school for the deaf for a full-fledged independent life in society. As a single complex system, social education is managed by society taking into account its needs and requirements, in accordance with its order for the type of personality it needs in a specific historical situation.

As a science, public education has its own subject, its own content. She studies laws, principles, categories, directions of education, the system of universal and specific humanistic values, and value orientations of the individual. The listed categories constitute a special branch of science - the theory of social education.

The theory of social education of deaf children is based on dialectical and historical materialism as a general methodology. The theory of raising deaf children is closely connected with general and special pedagogy and psychology, with the medical and pedagogical foundations of defectology (general neuropathology, psychopathology, anatomy, physiology and pathology of the hearing and speech organs).

Certain aspects of raising deaf children are considered in deaf pedagogy, in deaf psychology, and in private special methods. However, general issues (methodology, laws, principles, content, etc.) of education constitute the subject of the theory of education. At the center of the subject of the science of education is the holistic personality of a deaf student. It (the personality of the deaf) serves as the central point that links together a complex of information about oneself and the sciences listed above. This circumstance determines the complexity of science and education.

Education is not only a science, but also an art. If education as a science gives us answers to questions - what? then to the questions - how? how? The method of education gives us the answers, i.e. the art of education. Educational methodology studies the variety of ways, forms, means, methods, methodological techniques, and means of practical implementation of educational work. The section on educational methods includes the search for optimization, increasing the effectiveness of education, as well as planning and managing the educational process. The theory and methods of education are closely related to each other, forming a single complex - the science of education.

Consideration of the four system-forming unities and connections (complexes) that we have identified in an integrated approach to the specially organized education of deaf children does not exhaust its essence. In special pedagogy, this issue has not yet been considered, and in general pedagogy, as a rule, until recently, a one-sided substantive interpretation of the essence of an integrated approach to education in the spirit of the well-known thesis of the 25th Congress of the CPSU as ensuring close unity of ideological, political, labor and moral education prevailed. There is no doubt today about the relevance and productivity of the very approach to complexity in education as the unity of the above-mentioned main directions of social education. This is all the more important today, in these days of reorganization and formation of the economic, political, spiritual spheres of society during the period of humanization, democratization, and openness of public life.

To more fully characterize the integrated approach to the education of deaf schoolchildren, it is necessary to take into account the fact that a deaf student in the real educational process is simultaneously both an object and a subject of education. It must be frankly admitted that there is no deep scientific consideration of this aspect of an integrated approach to the education of the deaf. The difficulty lies in the weak scientific and theoretical development in deaf psychology of that deeply internal, complex psychological formation called personality orientation. And this is another complex, which, ultimately, is decisive for the scientific understanding of the process of self-education and self-education of the personality of a deaf schoolchild.

Thus, in our analysis of the essence of an integrated approach to the specially organized process of upbringing and teaching deaf children, the following types of unities, connections (complexes) are presented: 1) unity and interconnection of the objective circumstances of upbringing; 2) the personality structure of a deaf schoolchild; 3) education as a type of activity of the subject of education; 4) education as a science and art. The considered analysis of an integrated approach to education shows the exceptional importance of this way of increasing the effectiveness of social education and the degree of its complexity as a pedagogical phenomenon with all its connections and dependencies. In an integrated approach, the totality of organizational, content and methodological unities of the holistic special process of education and training of deaf schoolchildren finds its maximum expression.

Educational work in schools for deaf children requires serious rethinking. Along with providing pedagogical assistance to students in completing homework, it is important to fill the content of the work of such special boarding schools with activities based on interests, to create an atmosphere of caring attitude towards children, close to home conditions. Successful solution of the assigned tasks requires, in turn, improvement of the organizational and methodological work of educators.

A study of the state of educational work in a number of special general education boarding schools for deaf children in Ukraine made it possible to identify a number of shortcomings in the work of educators, among which the most typical are the following:

— insufficient awareness of educators with the principles of organizing student self-government and developing civic maturity among schoolchildren;

— weak relationship between educators and teachers in ensuring the unity of educational work;

- poor knowledge, and often complete ignorance of the specific psychological and pedagogical foundations of teaching and upbringing deaf children, the individual characteristics of deaf pupils and taking them into account in educational work;

- certain trends of formalism in educational work: mechanical transfer of experience in educational work from a general education school to a school for deaf children, passion for mass educational events, underestimation of individual work, etc.

The foregoing indicates the need for expedient planning of methodological work in order to eliminate the shortcomings noted above as much as possible. Meanwhile, the issues brought up for discussion at meetings of methodological associations of educators in a number of special schools are not always subordinate to the specific tasks of the educational process; in some schools, methodological work with students is dominated by coverage of theoretical issues without connection with the practical life of the school community; insufficient attention is paid to conducting practical classes, solving specific pedagogical situations that arise in the work of educators, analysis and self-analysis of educational activities, introducing into practice the achievements of psychological and pedagogical science and advanced pedagogical experience; Self-education of educators did not become an organic part of methodological work.

As a rule, in special boarding schools for deaf children the staff of educators is quite large. In some boarding schools, the number of teachers is from 40 to 60 people

It is quite clear that it is inappropriate to follow the path of creating one method of association with such a large number of educators. Almost all of this mass of teachers is united only by the position they hold as “educator”. These are teachers of preschool groups, if there is a preschool department at the school, preparatory, 1-4, 5-7, 8-12 grades. The goals, objectives, content, organizational forms, and methods of educational work with each of the named age groups of deaf children are in many ways deeply unique and specific. In order to better organize methodological work with educators in special schools for deaf children, several methodological associations of educators are being created. In our opinion, the most appropriate combination of educators into methodological associations may be as follows: a) preschool groups, grades 0-3 - one methodological association; b) grades 4-7 - second method of association; c) grades 8-12 - the third method of association. The content of the work of methodological associations is determined by the tasks facing the methodological and teaching staff, taking into account the state of educational work in a given school.

Work plans for school methodological associations of educators are drawn up in accordance with the problematic topic on which the school staff works during the school year. The starting points for planning can be:

- tasks determined by government regulations on schools, directive documents and instructional and methodological letters of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine, public education authorities;

— results of educational work for previous years;

— problematic issues that the school’s teaching staff is working to resolve.

The head of the methodological association, as a rule, is one of the most experienced educators with a higher education in defectology, based on the problematic issues facing the school staff, determines the main directions of educational work and plans specific activities for their implementation.

The primary tasks of methodological associations of school educators include:

— study of the methodological foundations of teaching and social education, government documents about the school;

— study and implementation of the achievements of general and special pedagogy and psychology into practice. advanced pedagogical experience;

— mastering new methods and techniques of education, skills and abilities in organizing extracurricular activities;

- systematic study and. analysis of methodological developments, instructions, recommendations regarding the content, forms and methods of extracurricular activities;

— a methodology for studying students’ upbringing for a purposeful educational influence on them and increasing the effectiveness of the educational process as a whole.

The solution to these problems primarily depends on the level of organization and content of the work of methodological associations of educators in schools for the deaf.

In most schools for deaf children, educators are people who have a general pedagogical education and have a purely practical knowledge of the psychological and pedagogical characteristics of a deaf student. This circumstance dictates to the head of the methodological association of educators the need to deeply study the qualitative composition of educators: education, work experience (general pedagogical and special), acquired practical experience, etc.

Before planning the work of a methodological association, the leader must conduct an interview with each member of the association, the essence of which boils down to approximately the following:

1. Find out objective data (education, previous work, plans for the future, etc.) of those who have joined the school’s teaching staff;

2. What difficulties do you experience at work? What kind of help do you need?

3. What useful things did you learn from the work of the methodological association in the last academic year?

5. What issues would you like to discuss at the meetings of the association?

6. Your wishes to improve the work of the methodological association.

The data obtained is analyzed and taken into account when determining the content of the work, the method of combining. At the same time, the directions of methodological work of the region and city are also taken into account. Only if the above is observed, drawing up a work plan for a methodological association of educators will be as close as possible to the creative process, the ultimate goal aimed at solving the problems facing the school staff in modern conditions.

My daughter is now 2.10. It was my first birth and I wouldn’t say it was difficult. The midwives and doctors at the maternity hospital said everything was fine, the baby was born healthy! And I breathed a sigh of relief...

Five months later, I noticed that the baby did not respond to his voice and only turned to squeaky toys. The pediatrician advised me to go to an audiologist. I will never forget my first appointment with an audiologist...
I was informed that my daughter has second degree hearing loss. For me, the whole world turned black, I walked home and really didn’t see anything. Tears flowed freely on their own. I didn't want to talk, eat or drink. My child CAN'T HEAR...
In order for us to be prescribed hearing aids, the third degree of hearing loss was written on the chart.

Seeing a child with devices on his tiny ears, I burst into tears again. The next influx of emotions came at the moment when individual ear plugs were being made. To do this, a special mass is poured inside, after a few minutes it hardens, and a “silicone” example for the future plastic liner is taken out of the ear. But you had to wait a few minutes... Remember how unpleasant it is when water gets into your ear. It crunches, the ear bursts... What is it like for a one-year-old baby?

We live in Nizhnevartovsk, and in order to undergo examination at a higher level, we were offered to go to Surgut. And I will remember this day for the rest of my life - I was told that my daughter had total deafness... After that, we went through KSVP and ASSR many times, but the result was not consoling, my hearing deteriorated and could not be restored.

We were put on a waiting list for cochlear implantation, but every cell, every part of me was against it. It was there in Surgut that I first saw an implanted boy and was horrified! The huge implant took up almost half of my head! I didn’t want this for my child... But days and months passed and I didn’t see any improvement in my daughter’s speech development with hearing aids, she only pronounced vowels and heard loud sounds.

At the beginning of 2010, we received a call and were told to collect tests for implantation. And I agreed! The operation lasted almost two hours, after which you cannot drink or eat for 2 hours. The baby slept almost the whole day, only asking for a drink in the evening. Three days later she was again running around the ward, playing with other children and laughing as if nothing had happened.

We spent half a month in the hospital, the first implant connection was made a month later. Having seen the implant, all my fears disappeared - it turned out to be not so scary, because every year the technology is improving, and this also applies to implants. We have Freedom 5, the newest one, it comes with a control panel, a dryer, 2 batteries, headphones and many other gadgets that I didn’t even really have time to figure out! Audiologists warned that each child reacts to new sounds differently - some listen, some start laughing, and some cry... My daughter cried.
We got used to the implant for more than a month - she simply threw hysterics when I put the processor on her ear. They saved themselves by walking - it was autumn, she didn’t know how to take off her hat, and the sandbox on the swing distracted her.

I patiently waited for the baby to get used to the new sounds, because having gotten used to the hardware sounds, she simply did not distinguish between the implanted ones, when she began to respond to her name and finally pronounce consonants... The most difficult for hearing-impaired children to perceive are the hissing sounds “s”, “sh” “, etc. I was in seventh heaven when I heard “bahi”, that’s what she calls the car.

4 months have passed since the connection, and my child repeats almost everything, of course, in her babbling language, but if you think that just six months ago she spoke only vowels and didn’t really hear anything, for me this is progress, with a capital P. I know that you shouldn’t fold your hands on this, like, “he hears and okay,” you need to practice a lot so that the child speaks like me, or you, you need to talk and talk every minute so that the baby accumulates a vocabulary. Many, roughly speaking, “hang themselves” that their children are talkative or for some reason; Dear mommies, rejoice at this, because I’m only dreaming about it for now. And if the question arises whether to have a cochlear implant or not, don’t think about it, do it, your baby will thank you later!
Now I remember everything like a bad dream, all the examinations, computed tomography, anesthesia, documents, tests, minutes before the operation, minutes after, hysterics with getting used to the implant...
But it was worth it!