PhD, Associate Professor I.V. Mikhaylova¹
PhD, Associate Professor A.I. Alifirov^1
1Russian State Social University, Moscow

Keywords: chess, autism, intellectual development, mental condition, web-portals, memory, attention, thinking.

Background. It was the research team of National State University of Physical Culture, Sports and Health named after P.F. Lesgaft that developed a social rehabilitation and integration paradigm for mentally and intellectually deficient people based on the relevant adaptive physical education methods and technologies [1]. Having analysed a heuristic potential of adaptive physical education practices, S.P. Evseev noted that it is the level physical activity of disabled people on the whole that may be used as a key criterion to rate success of the integrated rehabilitation process. However, cases of the mental and intellectual deficiencies have proved to be correctable by mental rather than physical activity advancement tools since they contribute more to the psychophysical status normalizing and individual intellectual resource mobilizing responses that help in socialization and integration of the individuals. This finding demonstrated certain succession in the scientific theory development process including the adaptive physical education design and development concepts.

For the last fifty years, science has accumulated valuable theoretical and practical materials to support and help advance the adaptive chess mastering course models. The disabled peoples’ integration models considered in the context of modern medicine and adaptive physical education have been reported by a few study reports and included in the curricula put together by researchers from Russia, Ukraine, Germany, India and Armenia (A.A. Rubinchik, 1961; D. Horgan, 1987; V.S. Tsaturian, 1993; M.A. Feldman, 1994; A.A. Zhesterev, D.D. Komarov, 1999; M. Scholz, 2008; S. Dominika, S. Georg, 2016). The studies, however, have not been based on a consistent theoretical and practical concept and, therefore, largely restricted to the local and specific fields and subjects and, consequently, their specific findings cannot be reasonably extrapolated [3].

Objective of the study was to develop a theoretical concept for and pilot a practical model of adaptive chess course designed to socialize and integrate mentally and intellectually deficient people.

Methods and structure of the study. Theoretical, practical and procedural basics of the chess game application as a fully-fledged albeit specific form of adaptive physical education have been considered in a few experimental studies by the Physical Education Theory and Practice Department (chaired by Dr.Hab. and Russian Paralympic Committee Member A.S. Makhov) of Russian State Social University (RSSU), Moscow [4, 6]. The chess course offered in different forms and supported by practical competitions was offered as the core method applicable for the psychophysical activation of mentally and intellectually deficient people. An on-line chess course was piloted back in 2013 to train two juniors diagnosed with child autism (giving no names in the article for ethical reasons). Having applied in the chess course the relevant information and communication technologies offered on websites of one of the authors (Chessy at www.chessy.ru; Teaching Children with Autism to Mind Read; and Floor Time methods), we made success in mitigating the subjects’ communicative deficiencies and improving their socializing abilities. The corrective chess practices were offered in the relevant virtual education environment accessible via the International Chess Club website with the relevant auto-training toolkits, fairy tale therapeutic and psycho-therapeutic tools available via Skype communication [2]. The course success was verified by the competitive accomplishments of the junior masters who won the titles of Champions of Switzerland and successfully joined the European Championship of their healthy peers.

The integrated education format was piloted in the training sessions of the Special Health Group (SHG) students of RSSU diagnosed with similar health disorders and deficiencies. In view of the fact that RSSU operates a 400-seat Chess House equipped with the relevant high technologies, the training sessions were designed based on the modern standard and information/ communication educational tools and methods. In the academic year of 2015-16, we made an attempt to rate the quality of life of the chess-mastering SHG students using the SF-36 Questionnaire Form (Short Form-36).

The students' condition rating tests after the adaptive chess course under the school Physical Education subject showed their mental and physical health self-rates to have grown by 12% on average that gives the reasons to expect the chess training courses being of positive effects on the quality of life of the students with minor mental deficiencies [6]. The standard chess course was piloted at the SBE Psycho-neurological Boarding School (PNBS) #22 and supported by the 2016 Moscow Municipal Individual and Team Tournament to honour the memory of T.V. Petrosyan, the 9^th World Champion. Participating in the Tournament were also students of the PNBS #3, 4, 11, 12, 16, 18 and 22, and the PNBS #22 team won the Tournament as the 2016 Moscow Best Chess Team.

Study results and discussion. In view of the chess game being ranked among the most accessible sports, the adaptive chess courses are recommended for broad implementation in a wide variety of socialization and rehabilitation applications for people diagnosed with minor mental/ intellectual deficiencies. Knowing the high heuristic potential of the chess game as an integrated tool applicable for rehabilitation of mentally/ intellectually deficient people, the RSSU team has developed a Master's course “Physical Rehabilitation and Sports in Recreation and Tourism Sector” that includes modules with theoretical and practical basics of chess game presented as a fully-fledged sport discipline within the adaptive physical education domain. Furthermore, we filed a formal application for participation in the Contest “Physical Education and Health Process Design Based on Adaptive Chess Courses for Special Health Group Students of universities of Russia” under the auspices of the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation. RSSU will also host the 2016 Students’ Paralympic Games of the Russian Federation in four sport disciplines including chess. Upon the event, the Russian Chess Federation and Russian National Special Olympics Office will initiate chess game being included in the Special Olympics program. In addition, an application was filed to include the Chess Coach profession to facilitate participation of the RSSU students in Abilympics, professional national and world championships for disabled people. In case of success of the above initiatives, chess game may be qualified both as a fully-fledged sport discipline and a driver for the adaptive physical education research activity.

Conclusion. Practical benefits demonstrated by the adaptive chess mastering courses and the students’ accomplishments in competitions have shown that the active thinking ability improvement by chess game helps develop important intellectual functions, with a notable progress in the short-term memory skills; abstract and logical thinking; attention scope, depth and stability; and cognitive brain reserve mobilizing ability. The disabled people’s quality of life improvement demonstrated a synergic effect beneficial for the mentally and intellectually deficient peoples’ integrated rehabilitation initiatives. Chess game shows at least a triple benefit for the disabled inmates of the Psycho-neurological Boarding Schools by giving them mental shelter, comfort and challenge.

 References

1. Evseev S.P. Adaptivnaya fizicheskaya kultura v praktike raboty s invalidami i drugimi malomobilnymi gruppami naseleniya. Ucheb. posobie [Adaptive physical education for people with impairments and other low mobile populations. Study guide]. Moscow: Sovetskiy sport publ., 2014, 298 p.
2. Mikhaylova I.V., Shmeleva S.V., Makhov A.S. Primenenie infokommunikatsionnykh sredstv obucheniya v mnogoletney podgotovke sportsmenov-shakhmatistov [Information communication teaching aids in long-term training of chess players]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2015, no. 5, pp. 70–72.
3. Mikhaylova I.V., Makhov A.S. Sozdanie federalnoy innovatsionnoy ploshchadki po formirovaniyu modeli i ideologii operezhayushchego adaptivnogo shakhmatnogo obrazovaniya v vuze [Creating federal innovative platform for dissemination of model and ideology of advanced development of university adaptive chess education]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2015, no 10, pp. 56-58.
4. Mikhaylova I.V., Makhov A.S., Alifirov A.I. Shakhmaty kak mnogokomponentny vid adaptivnoy fizicheskoy kultury [Chess as multi­component type of adaptive physical culture]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2015, no. 12, pp. 56-58.
5. Safiulin E.M., Makhov A.S., Mikhaylova I.V. Analiz prepyatstvuyushchikh faktorov razvitiya masterstva i chislennosti shakhmatistov s porazheniem oporno-dvigatelnogo apparata na etape nachalnoy sportivnoy podgotovki [Chess groups for beginner players with musculoskeletal disorders: mastery and participation restraining factor analysis]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2016, no. 4, pp. 33-35.
6. Safiulin E.M., Alifirov A.I. Vliyanie igry v shakhmaty na funktsionalnoe sostoyanie invalidov [Impact of game of chess on functional status of persons with musculoskeletal disorders]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2016, no. 7, p. 52.

Corresponding author: helga@chessy.ru

Abstract

The need for motor activity is commonly known to be associated with the need for psychophysical activity to activate the personal intellectual potential. Regretfully, chess game was left beyond the List of Sports for People with Intellectual Disorders under the valid Federal Sport Training Standard. We employed a set of problem-addressing tools offered by the modern adaptive physical education theory and practice to apply some chess game practices combined with adaptive training tools for correction of mental and intellectual pathologies in different groups of trainees. We applied the Teaching children with Autism to Mind Read and Floor Time methods in the chess game learning process to effectively mitigate the communicative disorders in junior competitors of the national and European championships. The adaptive chess course was implemented under the Physical Education program for the special health group students of Russian State Social University. In addition, the chess course was piloted at the SBE Psycho-neurological Boarding School #22 and supported by the Moscow Municipal Individual and Team Tournaments that made it possible to build up and test the practical application chess game course designed to correct different deficiencies in the attention focusing, memory and thinking abilities of adults.