Language skills and communication of children with reading disabilities in selected inclusive primary schools in Bungoma County, Kenya
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Date
2012-08
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Publisher
College of Education, Open & Distance Learning
Abstract
The ability to communicate is one determiner of a student’s success or failure. The acquisition of language skills promote and cement the skills like listening, speaking and writing. The ability to read is crucial for information retrieval. In the written examination oriented education system in Kenya, the child who fails to read and comprehend the written word has distorted communication and the general performance will be poor as a result of poor communication. This study aimed at determining the level of language skills and communication of children with reading disabilities in the inclusive primary schools under study. The following were the study objectives used to get the findings; 1.-to determine the demographic characteristics of respondents in terms of age, gender, educational qualifications, number of years teaching experience and position held in school. 2.-to determine the level of language skills of children with reading disabilities. 3.- determine the level of communication skills of children with reading disabilities and 4.-to establish if there is a significant relationship between the level of language skills and the level of communication skills of children with reading disabilities. The study was guided by Vyotsky’s social constructivist theory which views learning as both socially based and integrated. The beneficiaries of this study are the learners, teachers, parents, inclusive primary school administrators, educational policy makers, the ministry of education and any other interested parties and future researchers. The study employed the descriptive survey design. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used for data collection. A target population of 115 respondents purposively sampled from 20 schools randomly selected in Bungoma County was used in the study. Demographic characteristics of respondents were tabulated in frequency and distribution tables. The level of language skills and level of communication skills was tabulated using mean. The correlation coefficient was arrived at using the regression analysis. The research finding indicated that there was a positive and significant relationship between the variable correlated. The researcher -therefore concluded that the level of language skills has a positive influence on the level of communication skills of children with reading disabilities. The researcher recommends that further research should be done to improve on this study.
Description
A Thesis Presented to the College of Higher Degrees and Research Kampala International University Kampala, Uganda in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts in Special Needs Education
Keywords
Language skills, Communication, Reading disabilities, Bungoma County, Kenya