When analysing problems of mentally disabled people‘s socialization , integration and preparation for the independent life it is very urgent to speak about concrete specialists , who work with mentally disabled youths and define the later roles in a team .At the same time they satisfy and strenghten the needs and expectations of disabled persons.Common efforts of all participants of pedagogical interaction enable youths to seek for comprehensive cognitive, emotional and social maturity and academic success.

The object of master‘s paper – team work for preparing mentally disabled youths for the independent life.The aim of this paper - to analyse the peculiarities of team work, when preparing mentally disabled young people for their independent life.

The following tasks are raised so that the analysed topic can be revealed :

1.To reveal the reasoning of the team work and differences among a team and a group.

2.To discuss the problems of preparing mentally disabled youths for independent life.

3.Analyse the opinion of the specialists who work in a team about a team work fostering skills of mentally disabled young people for independent life in the centre of special education and engagement in Utena .

The analysis has been done by applying these investigation methods:

- The analysis of scientific literature and documents .

- Giving questionairies for the specialists of Utena special education and engagement centre.

- Statistical analysis of the data, done by the Computor program SPSS 14.0 Windows, calculating the percentage conclusions of the respondents‘ answers and performing the correlational analysis

Generalising the material, given in the scientific literature and analysing the investigation results of respondents‘ opinions , three conclusions have been made. Three main statements are differentiated out of these conclusions:

A team is a the totality of people, who are united by common interests and inter dependence , the members of the team are intercommunicating .The differences between working groups and teams come to light when evaluating their aims, energy, the level of responsibility and skills.

Working activities and engagement for mentally disabled youths are organized according to the programs of specialists.Each youth‘s individual achievements as well as arising problems are evaluated in the educational process and the ways are foreseen how these problems will be solved.

Basic aims of the team work are defined by the specialists who work with mentally disabled youths :

- Solve their problems , teach social skills . and the main functions of a team are - training, consulting, organising and communicating.

Recommendations , given in this paper , define the importance of a team work when working with mentally disabled youths.

Raktažodžiai: team, teamwork, mental disabilities