Learning difficulties encountered by children with hearing impairment in an inclusive setting in Ndarugu division, Gatundu District-Kenya
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Date
2011-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kampala International University, School of Education
Abstract
The main focus of this study to find out chllenges faced by children with hearing impairment in
an inclusive setting. The researcher picked interest in finding out the mode of communication
used by teachers, instructional materials teachers use to instruct hearing impaired learners,
teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion of children with hearing impairment in regular schools and
finding ways of improving the education ofthese children.
To get the information needed an interview guide was designed for children with hearing
impairment and questionaires prepared and distributed to headteachers and teachers in the
selected schools. Random and purposive sampling techniquues were used to select schools and
the respondents.
The findings revealed that children with hearing impairment in regular schools experienced some
challenges which among others included; lack of specially trained teachers in special needs
education to cater for their learning needs and interests, inadequacy of appropriate equipment
and learning materials, inappropriate teaching materials and methods, negative attitudes of
teachers towards the education of the handicapped children and high teacher—pupil ratio in class
among others.
From the study, the following recommendations were made that; Special Needs Education
should be co-opted into Primary Teachers’ Colleges as a course, government, NGOs and other
stakeholders should intensify community awareness programmes about the rights of persons with disabilities, refresher courses should be provided to teachers to equip them with knowledge and skills to assitst learners with special learning needs and teachers be trained to make and use the available local materials, primary school teachers should be encouraged to go for up grading special needs education, parents of children with special needs should be encouraged to activelyget involved in the learning of their children among others.
Description
A research report submitted to the college of open and distance learning in partial fulfillment of the recruitment for the award of Bachelor’s Degree in special needs education of Kampala International University
Keywords
Learning difficulties, Children, Hearing impairment, Inclusive setting