Influence of early identification of reading difficulties among primary school pupils in Niger state
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64171/JAES.6.4.5-11Keywords:
Reading difficulties, Early identification, Primary school, Primary pupilsAbstract
The study was aimed at exploring early identification of reading difficulties among primary school pupils in Niger state. The study laid its focus on identifying observable reading difficulties among primary school pupils, causes of reading difficulties and proffering strategies that will help these categories of children. Three research questions guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey method. The sample for the study was 200 primary school teachers drawn randomly from 20 primary schools. A 38-item structured questionnaire instrument was used in collecting the data for the study. The instrument was validated by three experts and the reliability was determined using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient which yielded values of 0.77, 0.76, and 0.81 respectively. The data collected were analyzed using mean scores. Based on the analysis, the following findings amongst others were revealed as the observable reading difficulties in children in primary school: skipping of words, reading laboriously, poor hand and eye coordination. Causes of reading difficulties among primary school pupils include lack of clarity of the information being taught, poor instruction by the teacher, bad early experience and parental background.
Among the strategies teachers can use to help children are; early screening by the teacher, phonemic awareness, letter sound training, assessing children’s reading development, supportive parents and clarity of information being taught. Following the findings, the study recommends that parents, guardians and classroom teachers should ensure early screening such as right identification and pronunciation of words among the primary school pupils and effective instructional materials are employed to ensure effective reading skills among the primary school pupils.
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