Concept Development and level of Social Maturity of Visually Handicapped Children in Integrated and Residential Settings

The present study aimed to investigate the level of social maturity and concept development of visually impaired children in residential and integrated educational settings. For this purpose 40 visually impaired children, 20 from residential educational setting and 20 from integrated educational setting were selected through purposive sampling technique from Uttarakhand, Uttara Prdesh, Hariyana, Gujrat and Delhi. For measuring level of social maturity and concept development, Vineland Social Maturity Scale (Indian adaption by A.J. Malin) and M.N.G. Mani’s concept development test were administered. 2 test, mean and percentage techniques were used to analyze the obtained data. The result reveals that in residential school setting children are more socially mature in comparison to integrated educational setting. The cumulative average performance score from all the 200 concepts reveal that residential education is more effective in comparison to integrated education for visually impaired children.