A comparative study of creative imagination in students with intellectual disabilities and normal students

this article presents the results of a demonstrative experiment aimed at studying the development of creative imagination in senior high school students with intellectual disabilities. The study was conducted in comparison with typically developing peers and was based on the author's methodology, which included three types of tasks with gradually increasing complexity of support: from visual ("Completing Figures") to verbal ("Composing a Story Using Key Words") to symbolic ("Composing a Story Using a Map Fragment"). The results revealed a significant delay in the development of imagination in students in a special (correctional) school. Most of them are characterized by low and average levels of task performance, manifested by stereotypical, fragmented images, and difficulties in combining them and creating coherent compositions. It has been established that task success directly depends on the type of support: visual aids facilitate the task, while working with verbal and especially symbolic (cartographic) stimuli poses the greatest difficulties. The key problems are recognized as the immaturity of the operational components of imagination (analysis, synthesis, combination) and the paucity of initial sensory experience. The lack of positive dynamics in the development of imagination from grades 6 to 9 indicates insufficient attention to targeted remedial work in the educational process. A conclusion is drawn about the relevance and necessity of a specially organized formative stage of work that utilizes the potential of geographic material for the systemic development and correction of imagination in students with intellectual disabilities.

imagination, creative imagination, intellectual disabilities, students in a special (correctional) school, geographic material, ascertaining experiment, remedial work