The article summarises the attitudes of primary school students towards classmates that have SEN (special educational needs).Purpose of the study is to analyse the attitudes of regular schoolchildren in primary grades towards the SEN pupils learning with them, i.e., pupils with various disabilities of intellect, motion or state. The following were studied: regular students’ attitudes towards the usefulness of SEN students learning together with regular students; relationships between students of regular development and SEN students; the disposition of regular students to cooperate with students that have disabilities and provide them with help if necessary.The study included 105 primary students of regular development, 15 students with special educational needs due to severe disability and the 5 pedagogues that teach these children. The study was conducted by applying quantitative and qualitative research methods and later processed by applying statistical and content analysis methods.The children also think that the best places for educating these children are special schools or at home. It was also determined that regular students did not view SEN students as their equals and could not even imagine what kind of help they could receive from them or what kind of help they could provide for them themselves. Despite this, the majority of regular students willingly befriend SUP students and help them understand new communications technology (the internet, mobile connection). However, they admit that occasional teasing occurs due to the SUP student’s physical weakness or inability related to their mental or physical disability. An especially saddening discovery is that a substantial number of children choose to “not get involved”, “pay no attention” and “mind my own business” when a disabled or weaker child is being hurt.

The article deals with the impact of learning disabilities on child socialization. The article discusses cognitive, i.e. thinking, speech, attention, memory, emotional and behavioural disorders that fall within and outside the group of the new classification of developmental disorders (The Procedure for Determining Groups of Schoolchildren with Special Educational Needs and Distributing Their Special Educational Needs into Levels No. V-1265/V-685/A1-3170 of 13 July 2011) as well as their direct impact on the formation of basic social skills (school adaptation, communication, cooperation and behaviour in conflict situations). The aim of the research was to analyze and compare characteristics and differences of school adaptation and socialization of younger school-age students with learning disabilities and those of students of the same age with the normal development. Research procedure and subjects: the research was conducted in seven randomly selected primary schools in Vilnius. The research subjects were 107 primary education teachers and 2 520 students, of which 400 (16 percent) students had various disabilities that had been identified by the Educational Psychological Service or child welfare commission. Research methods: data were collected using quantitative analysis and processed using methods of statistical analysis. [...].

R. Giedrienė’s article “Timely Integrated Assistance to Childrenwith Special Needs – Crucial Factor for Their Successful Education/Learning and Positive Socialization” is based on the analysis of literary data and empirical researches analysing opportunities of successful learning and positive socialization of preschool children with special needs. To this end, the following is described: – Positive socialization mechanisms of children with special needs. – Concept of timely integrated assistance to children with special needs. – Focus on sensitive period limits of cognitive and social functions during maturation. – Correlation between the quality of developing cognitive functions and prospective academic achievements at school. – Empirical research results showed that some cognitive skills of children with or without developmental disorders in preschool groups influence their success of learning and social skills. It was determined that 27–35 % of children have undeveloped skills to distinguish native language sounds aurally, poor general linguistic capacity (poor vocabulary, inability to learn grammar patterns, poor skills of coherent language), 10–12 % had the lack of visual and spatial perception. The lack of these cognitive processes anticipates prospective learning disorders: dysgraphia, dyslexia, dyscalculia, which also affects child’s socialization processes. Also, it introduces changes of the Lithuanian education system over the last years, which lead to a drastic shrinkage of special integrated assistance for pre-schoolers. [...].