Teaching Reading And Counting In Salah: Experiences Of Muslim Caregivers Of Down Syndrome Children In Selangor

Amira Binti Abdul Rahman,Fitri Suraya Mohamad

doi:10.14419/ijet.v7i3.22.17122

Abstract

Children born with Down Syndrome face difficulty in reciting daily prayers as they are born with cognitive disabilities which affect the process of acquiring reading and counting skills. Although in Islam, these children are not required to perform Salah, the strong cultural family norms among Malay Muslims in Malaysia create an expectation of them to participate in Salah as part of their daily routines. This study examines the experiences in teaching Down Syndrome children how to read and count in Salah among Muslim family caregivers in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The study also investigates best practices to facilitate a Down Syndrome child to perform daily religious prayers that involves the skills of reading and counting. Case study method is deployed to examine responses from three informants who voluntarily participated in this study. The study uses non-probability sampling to acquire accurate and realistic conceptions from caregivers who are actively working with their respective Down Syndrome children. Findings from the study revealed a high tendency among caregivers to use repetition in the learning process, and to create an environment where the Down Syndrome children can imitate the actions done and words spoken when performing the Salah. The use of rewards is also found to be useful and effective to motivate and encourage Down Syndrome children to learn to cognitive tasks for Salah.

Highlights

Narrated by ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar: The Messenger of Allah (‫ ) صلى الله عليه وسلم‬as saying: “Each of you is a shepherd and each of you is responsible for his flock...a man is a shepherd in charge of the inhabitants of his household and he is responsible for his flock; a woman is a shepherdess in charge of her husband’s house and children and she is responsible for them...So each of you is a shepherd and each of you is responsible for his flock.”[Sunan Abi Dawud]Salah in Islam, is one of its daily religious tasks performed by Muslims
The study focuses on how Down Syndrome children from Malay Muslim families in Malaysia acquire the skills of reading and counting and apply the skills in the performing their personal daily religious tasks, the Salah
The determining pre-requisites to invite caregivers to participate in the study are that they must have already been living with a Down Syndrome children for at least seven years, and they have been exposed to diverse ways and approaches shared within the Down Syndrome community of carers about facilitating their own children in reading and counting at home, and they have applied what they know and learned in the teaching of Salah to their own children

Summary

Introduction

Narrated by ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar: The Messenger of Allah (‫ ) صلى الله عليه وسلم‬as saying: “Each of you is a shepherd and each of you is responsible for his flock...a man is a shepherd in charge of the inhabitants of his household and he is responsible for his flock; a woman is a shepherdess in charge of her husband’s house and children and she is responsible for them...So each of you is a shepherd and each of you is responsible for his flock.”. The study focuses on how Down Syndrome children from Malay Muslim families in Malaysia acquire the skills of reading and counting and apply the skills in the performing their personal daily religious tasks, the Salah. It was stated that by understanding the various learning styles and development phases, there are opportunities to devise more effective teaching approaches or therapies to assist Down Syndrome children to acquire any cognitive based skills. The determining pre-requisites to invite caregivers to participate in the study are that they must have already been living with a Down Syndrome children for at least seven years, and they have been exposed to diverse ways and approaches shared within the Down Syndrome community of carers about facilitating their own children in reading and counting at home, and they have applied what they know and learned in the teaching of Salah to their own children. The questions were targeted to collect first-hand information about the way the caregivers educate their children to perform daily prayers

Discussion of Findings

Conclusion