Available Interventions for Psychosocial Challenges of Dyslexic and Gifted Children in Regular Public Primary Schools of Mwatate Subcounty, Taita Taveta County, Kenya

Abstract

Children with dyslexia and those who are gifted normally enroll in regular public primary schools. This is due to the fact that there are hardly any specialized schools for them. However, these children have deep psychosocial challenges that threaten their learning. In addition, their learning needs are not as obvious as those of children with physical handicaps. Due to this fact, they are subjected to regular classroom learning methods which only serve to aggravate their psychosocial challenges. The purpose of this study was to assess the available interventions for psychosocial challenges of dyslexic and gifted children in regular public primary schools of Mwatate Sub County, Taita Taveta County, Kenya.The study employed descriptive survey research design. The study population totaled to 552 teachers. These included 59 head teachers, and 493 teachers of all regular public primary schools of Mwatate Sub-County. Purposive and stratified random sampling methods were used to obtain a sample of 189 respondents. Questionnaires were used to collect data. The validity of the instruments was determined by subjecting them to the scrutiny of the researcher’s supervisors and other experts from the department of Psychology, Counseling and Educational Foundations of Egerton University. In order to establish reliability, the research instruments were pilot tested in two primary schools that had close similarity to the schools in the study population. The following reliability indices were obtained: a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.76 for the Questionnaire for Regular Teachers (QRT); 0.74 for the Questionnaire for Head teachers (QHT); 0.76 for the Questionnaire for Special Education Teachers (QSET) and 0.84 for the Questionnaire for Teacher Counselors (QTC). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics including frequencies and percentages and inferential statistics, specifically the ANOVA. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0 for windows was used in data analysis. The research findings were presented in form of tables. The study revealed that the psychosocial challenges of these children were largely neglected within regular public primary schools of Mwatate Sub-County. Workshops, seminars and in-service courses were recommended to create awareness of dyslexia and giftedness among regular public primary school teachers. In addition, it was recommended that the curriculum for teaching courses should be revised so as to include detailed content on special needs in education and inclusive education.