Knowledge of basic school teachers on identification and support services for children with dyslexia

Abstract

Background: Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is characterized by difficulties with fluency, automaticity, and co-morbidity with learning. The study sought to assess the knowledge of basic school teachers on identification and support services for children with dyslexia. Method: A descriptive study design using a quantitative approach was employed for this study. The study population comprised of public basic school teachers who were selected using a simple random sampling technique. Data was collected by means of self-administered questionnaires and analysed with the aid of SPSS. Results: An average of 62% of the teachers had knowledge on dyslexia, 60.5% of teachers had knowledge on dyslexia identification and an average of 65% had knowledge on support services for children with dyslexia. There was a significant relationship between knowledge score and special education training as teachers with Bachelor’s Degree in Special Education were 1.75 times more likely to have higher knowledge score on dyslexia [(AOR) = 1.75 (95% CI; 0.74 to 4.14)]. The main barriers to teaching children with dyslexia included inadequate resources, lack of training on dyslexia, large class sizes making it difficult to recognize a dyslexic as well as time to develop dyslexia friendly instructions. Conclusion: Knowledge of dyslexia among public basic school teachers within the Asokwa Sub-Metropolis was found to be average. Therefore, more in-service training on dyslexia should be organized by the Ghana Education Service for all basic school teachers.