| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of my study was three-fold: To discover the extent of awareness of dyslexia among
primary school teachers in Nairobi East, Makadara Division as well as their awareness of
government policy on students with special education needs, to identify dyslexic children and the
challenges they encounter in the area mentioned, investigate the availability of relevant resources
and parental involvement in the social and academic education of these children in the selected
schools.
The study's objective was to explore the extent of dyslexia, as evidenced by the symptoms
exhibited by the affected students and to obtain deeper insights into the kind of school or
institutional support provided to dyslexics.
The study, which incorporated methodological triangulation, was essentially, a set of qualitative
and quantitative studies, involving the use of students' current and past academic and social
reports or records, informal discussions, observation during a set lesson or over a prescribed
period of time by a teacher, assessor and/ or the researcher.
Its flexible design applied a participant - observation protocol and survey in which both
questionnaires, observer-rater instruments and students' self-evaluation sheets were administered
to the respondents. This exploratory and evaluative study covered 15 out of 26 City Council
Primary Schools in Makadara Division, Nairobi East.
The study's findings showed the existence of the symptoms of dyslexia among the students
assessed, awareness of dyslexia among teachers, but little understanding of the broad facts on
dyslexia. The study observed that little, if any teacher training had been done on dyslexia, and
that teachers had conflicting, misleading or inaccurate facts about government policy on special
education needs, although a few were aware of at least one policy.
The study noted that while physical handicap, mental retardation, audio and visual impairment
had received a lot of focus from researchers, and a number of trained teachers in those
disciplines, teacher training on dyslexia and related conditions had been widely ignored and
unacknowledged.
The environment, especially in schools located in the slums, was not appropriate or healthy for
supporting dyslexics because they lacked basic facilities, were overcrowded, disallowing the
teacher from giving more attention to children with special education needs
Although the findings indicated the presence of learning support departments in schools, very
fewwere equipped with resources that could enable the effective teaching of dyslexics. Parental
participation was noted, especially in PTA activities, but in the more critical area of following up
students' progress and giving feedback, it was lacking. Schools appeared to keep regular
channels of communication with parents, particularly through telephones and students diaries.
Moreneed for parent-teacher collaboration was noted.
Although there was awareness of government policy on special education, according to the
findingsof the study, teachers were still unable to clearly expound on and give accurate facts on
the same policies | en |
