INTRODUCTION OF SUITABLE TEACHING AIDS AND MATERIALS TO AID CONCEPT FORMATION IN MENTALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN
Loading...
Files
Date
1988
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ACHARYA N.G. RANGA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY, RAJENDRANAGAR, HYDERABAD
Abstract
The significance of child study - normal or
handicapped, cannot be overlooked as it is a contributing
factor to the welfare of the individual and
society. It has become a topic of potent interest
to parents, teachers and significant adults, who are
interested in the welfare of the society at large.
A child with a mental handicap develops at a
slower rate than the normal children and is not able
to achieve the full intellectual functions of a normal
adult person. However each mentally handicapped child
has an individual ruaximum to attain. He can reach
that potential development if given all the opportunities.
Moreover, it is consistent with a democratic
philosophy that every child is worthy of, and has the
right to some educationa~ 0pportunity which will help
him to develop his potential. Hence the mentally .
handicapped must be given suitable 0pportunities and
training to develop their latent capacities so that
they can become independent as far as their handicap
permits.
The use of teaching aids and materials in the
education of the mentally handicapped helps in making
the child enthusiastic, active, lively and interested.
Interest sustains attention and helps in increasing
the attention span. Thus learning would be enhanced.
Scrutinizing the studies conducted abroad and in India,
it was found that, there are no set teaching aids and
materials specifically developed for teaching the
mentally handicapped effectively. What is generally
lacking is the correct use of strategies and teaching
aids through which the mentally handicapped could
learn certain concepts •. Theref0re, it was felt necessary
to re-examine the methods and principles and to develop
suitable teaching aids and materials for the mentally
handicapped children, in order to teach certain concepts.
The objectives of the study were to prepare teaching
aids and materials for the educable mentally handicapped
children, out of indigenous materials, to teach
the concepts of colour, shape, alphabets, numbers and
money; to obtain an evaluation of the developed teaching
aids and materials by special educator~;to study and
compare the effectiveness of tile aids and materials in
concept formation, among the experimental and control
group respondents; to study the relationship between
the socio-economic status of the family and the ability
of the child in concept formation; and to study the
effectiveness of the developed teaching aids and materials
in teaching the selected concepts. The sample
constituted a total of 60 subjects from Hyd~rabad
Special School, who were distributed equally to the
experimental and control groups. The sample included
only those children -
who were educable mentally handica~ped, having
an IO of 50 - 70,
who did not have any droblems of vision
hearing, speech or other multiple handicaps,
and
who did not recognize most of the concepts
included for the study.
The IQ levels of the subjects were collected
from the assessment reports prepared by clinical
psychologist. The Madras Developmental Pro.gramming
system was administered for behavioural assessment.
The other techniques for data collection included
interview schedule to enumerate family back-ground
information;and score card for evaluation of the developed
teaching aids and materials by special educators.
Three different types of teaching aids and
materials were developed on the basis of behaviour
modification and task analysis, for the concepts of
colour, shape, alphabets, numbers and money. The aids
were evaluated by fifteen special educators. The
scores were ranked and statistically analyzed. The
selected teaching aids were administered for a period
of 3 months, to the respondents of the experimental
'·
group. Individual instruction was given to each child
for 15 to 30 minutes per day. Group instruction with
4 to 5 children, was adapted ocassionally for practice
of the learnt concepts. The concepts taught included
the recognition of red, green and yellow colours;
shapes of circle, square and triangle; letters A, B
and C; numbers 1, 2 and 3; and 5 ps, 10 ps and 20 ps
coins. The concepts of red colour, shape-circle,
letter 1A 1
, number 1 1 1
, and 5 ps coin were introduced
initially. The next concept in each group was taught
only when the child recognized the f '.rst.
The control group remained unexposed to the developed
aids. The selected concepts were 'taught by
special educators through commercial materials available
in the classroom.
The subjects of both the groups were post-tested
for their over-all concept formation, at the end of ti1e
administration period.
The various data obtained for the study were
statistically analysed and results were obtained.
Evaluation of ti1e developed teaching aids by
special educators revealed that the teaching aids and
materials prepared from hardboard and paints, were
most suitable in teaching the concepts of colour,
shape, alphabets, numbers and money. The cost of
the selected teaching aids ranged between Rs.4.20 for
money concepts to Rs.28.50 for numbers and alphabets
concept, while the cost of teachings aids for colour
and shape concepts worked out to be Rs.13.00 and
Rs.13.50 respectively.
A significant association was found between the
type of instruction and formation of colour, shape,
alphabets, numbers and money concepts among the experimental
and control groups. Further, a significant
difference (Z calculated value = 6.60) was found between
the experimental and control groups in their over-all
concept formation, thus indicating that superior concept
fo~nation in experimental group was associated to the
instruction imparted through thedeveloped teaching aids
and materials.
The formation of concepts in the experimental
group was found to be independent of the socio-economic
factors like education of mother and father, occupation
of father and family income.
There was a signif1cant association oetween the
adr~n1strat1on ot the developed teaching aids to the
experimental group, and formation of colour, shape,
alphabets, numbers and money concepts. Results also
showed that a significant ditterence e~sted(Z-calculated
value= 4.74) in the over-all concept formation among
the respondents of experimental group, before and
after the administration periodo Hence the developed
teaching aids and materials were effective in teaching
the selected concepts to the educable mentally handicapped
subjects.
Description
Keywords
INTRODUCTION, SUITABLE, TEACHING, MATERIALS, AID, CONCEPT, FORMATION,