Andrei Bistryakov

The article reveals the essence of the concepts "adaptation" (from the point of view of different scientific fields), "social adaptation", "pedagogical adaptation", "psychological adaptation". On their basis, the author gives his definition of "psychological and pedagogical adaptation" category. He also notes the peculiarities of psychological-pedagogical adaptation to school for children with mental retardation and the indigenous peoples of the North. Taking into account the identified features, the author studies the methodological approaches to psychological and pedagogical adaptation to school for children with mental retardation: bilingual and ethnic.