Education for children with special needs in Kenya: A review of related literature

Children with special needs in Kenya for many years were not given adequate attention with regard to their education. These children like their counterparts, have a right to free and compulsory basic education as provided for in international conventions to which Kenya is a signatory as well as in legal and policy frameworks in Kenya. Providing education for children with special needs is therefore one way of ensuring that their right to basic education is protected. This will in turn promote national development by providing a secure environment that enhances good health to allow people with special needs participate in social and political activities. This article therefore, provide insights on children with special needs from a review of related literature, with a special focus on the history of special needs education in Kenya, policy frameworks on special needs education, management and administration of special needs education institutions as well as discussions on selected categories children with special needs in Kenya. Key words: Children with special needs, Challenges in special needs education, Disability, Interventions in special needs education, Special needs educatio

Type of Preschool an Important Factor in Determining Fathers’ Support for their Children’s Education

Research has shown that father’s involvement in children’s education influence how children perform in education. While this is critical, the type of school the child attends is of great importance in determining whether fathers get involved in children’s education or not. This paper therefore presents research findings of a study conducted in Gucha District of Kisii County with regard to type of school and fathers’ involvement in children’s education. A sample size of sixteen preschools drawn from public and private sponsored and both from rural and urban set up were selected for this study. Further a sample size of 160 children and 160 fathers to the selected children were sampled for the study. Fathers were given a self report questionnaire with items requiring them to indicate their involvement in children’s education. Findings revealed that fathers with children in private sponsored preschools were more involved their children’s education than fathers with children in public sponsored schools. Fathers were involved more in checking whether children have done homework, buying books, paying school fees and attending school meetings. Keywords: key words, fathers’ involvement, type of school and fathers’ involvement, public and private preschool

Jigger Infestation a Menace to Children’s School Attendance

This study intended to investigate the relationship between jigger infestation and participation at school by pre-primary school and lower primary school children. The objective of the study was to find out the relationship between jigger infestation and children’s rate of school attendance. The study was carried out in Gatundu District because it is one of the highly jigger infested districts in Kiambu County, Kenya. The study utilized the Ecological systems theory and it employed the descriptive survey design. The population of the study comprised of pre-primary, lower primary school children and their class teachers from all the public schools in Gatundu District. Forty four jigger infested children were purposively sampled for the study. An equal number of pupils not infested were randomly sampled to be compared with those who were infested. The teachers handling pre-primary school and lower primary classes were also purposively sampled. Questionnaires for teachers, observations schedules for children and document analysis were utilized for data collection. Qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis were applied. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to prepare and organize data for analysis. Pearson’s correlation coefficient test was used to compute the relationship between the variables. Frequency distribution tables, percentages, and descriptions were utilized for data presentations. Findings revealed that jiggers were a major threat to the realization of children’s educational goals. The Pearson correlation coefficient indicated that jigger affected children’s school attendance in that r = -0.123, n=44 and sig(2 tailed)= 0.426.The study recommends that the school managers liaises with other stakeholders to seek for strategies of curing those infested, carry out routine checkups on children and sensitize communities on the causes, dangers and preventive measures of the jigger parasite in order to help all children realize their full educational potential in life. Keywords: Jigger infestation, school attendance, Jigger infestation, health hazar

Parent-Child Interaction and Pre-Schooler’s Level of Writing Readiness

Parenting education programmes have been found to promote good parent-child interactions in their households. Consequently, benefits in academic success, proper development of a child, prevention of child maltreatment and child aggression, have been associated with these programs. This article reports findings of the study conducted in Siaya county, Kenya to establish whether parenting education programmes influence writing readiness skills of children. A sample comprising 196 caregivers and their preschool children participated in the study. Questionnaire and learners’ writing tests were used to collect data from caregivers and preschool children respectively. To ensure validity of the instruments, content analysis was done. Descriptive statistics including means, standard deviation and percentages were used in summarizing data while Pearson Product Moment correlation coefficient was used to analyse the data with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20. The study revealed an existence of a significant relationship between parent-child interactions and level of writing readiness of preschool children. Keywords:Children’s writing skills, parental involvement, Parent-Child interaction, writing readiness skills DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-33-12 Publication date: November 30th 202

TEENAGE MOTHERS’ INVOLVEMENT IN THEIR CHILDREN’S ACQUISITION OF PRE-LITERACY SKILLS: A CASE OF KILIFI COUNTY, KENYA

Early literacy is an integral part in children’s learning. It is crucial in a child’s education cycle since it is the basic foundation on which all further learning is built. Many researchers have argued that since parents are the first teachers that a child encounter, it is important to find out how they can be involved in their children’s acquisition of pre-literacy skills. The two major ways of parental involvement that have been put forward are provision of resources that promote acquisition of pre-literacy skills and involving children in literary rich engagements. Unfortunately, studies on how teenage mothers can be actively involved in promoting their children’s acquisition of pre-literacy skills are scanty. Since teenage mothers are young and most of them depend on their parents for financial support and nurturance, it is important to find out how effective they can get involved in promoting their children’s acquisition of pre-literacy skills. Therefore, this article, highlights findings from a study that sought to establish whether teenage mothers are involved adequately in their children’s acquisition of pre-literacy skills. The study was based on Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological systems theory and employed descriptive survey design. It was carried out in Kilifi County, Kenya and involved a sample of 115 teenage mothers. A questionnaire and interview schedule were utilized to collect data from teenage mothers. Data was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings indicated that teenage mothers are not adequately involved in promoting their children’s acquisition of pre-literacy skills. The authors recommend that the government increases resources allocated to pre-primary schools and pre-primary school teachers should sensitize parents on their role in getting involved in their children’s education to promote pre-literacy skills.  Article visualizations

INVESTIGATING THE LEVELS OF READING SKILLS AMONG GRADE THREE PUPILS IN NAIROBI COUNTY, KENYA

Reading skills are vital to lower primary school pupils because it is the foundation for learning. However, studies worldwide indicate low levels of reading skills in schools and little has been done to find out how different instructional strategies used in lower grade schools influence learners’ acquisition of reading skills. The purpose of this study was to establish levels of reading skills among the Grade Three Pupils The research was guided by Holdaway’s Theory of Literacy Development and supported by Instructional Theory by Robert Gagne. The study established that 50% of the pupils were below average in reading of letter and letter sound recognition, 57.1% in sentence and paragraph reading, 53.6% in story reading and a mere 60.7% in comprehension skills.  Article visualizations

The Role of Parenting Styles in Enhancing or Hindering Children’s performance in preschool Activities

Extensive studies have been conducted on the relationship between parenting styles and adolescents’ academic performance. However, limited studies have focused on the relationship between these styles and preschool children’s performance. The current study sought to establish the relationship between parenting styles and pre-school children’s performance in curricular activities in Kisauni District, Kenya. A correlational research design was employed to carry out the study. A sample size of 160 pre-school children together with their parents was purposively selected based on their performance levels in curricular activities from 20 pre-schools. A questionnaire and an interview schedule were utilized to collect data on parenting styles. Further, data on pre-school children’s performance in preschool activities were collected through document analysis of children’s progress reports. Findings indicated that there was a significant relationship between parenting styles and children’s performance in preschool activities. There was a significant relationship between between authoritative parenting style and children’s performance where r = 0.882 and p = 0.00 < 0.01. Authoritarian parenting style was negatively correlated to children’s performance in curriculum activities where r = -0.261 and p = 0.002 < 0.01. There was no significant relationship between permissive parenting style and children’s performance. It was therefore concluded that parenting styles significantly influence children’s performance in preschool curriculum activities. Keywords: Parenting styles and children, Pre-school education, Parents and parenting style

Correlation between Class Size and Pupils’ Acquisition of Early Mathematics Competencies: A Case of Kericho County, Kenya

Mathematics is one of the core subjects in the Basic Education Curriculum in Kenya. It means that all pupils are required to have a strong grounding in the subject which depends on the level of their early mathematics competencies. The purpose of the study was therefore to establish the level of pupils’ acquisition of early mathematics competencies. The study was also to determine how class size was related to pupils’ acquisition of early mathematics competencies. The study was guided by Social Development Theory by Lev Vygotsky. The study adopted a correlation research design and a mixed research method approach. The dependent variable was pupils’ acquisition of early mathematics competencies while the independent variable was class size. The results from data analysis revealed that majority of the pupils had acquired early mathematics competencies and there was a difference in pupils’ acquisition of early mathematics competencies between grade three pupils in public and those in private primary schools. The relationship between class size and pupils’ acquisition of early mathematics competencies was significant at p<0.05 level of significance. Keywords: Class Size; Pupils; Acquisition of Early Mathematics Competencies; Kericho County; Kenya DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-21-23 Publication date:July 31st 202

Preschool attendance and children’s reading ability: A case of Narok County Kenya

This article reports findings of a study conducted in public primary schools in Narok County Kenya. A sample size comprising 74 children in Grade 3 (37 who did not attend preschool and 37 who attended preschool), 18 head teachers, 66 lower primary school teacher,s and five education officers were selected for the study. Learners’ reading ability was tested using the Kenya Early Grade Reading Assessment Tests for English and Kiswahili adapted from Department for International Development end line survey of 2014. Interviews of head teachers, teachers, and education officers were conducted. Findings revealed that children who attended preschool performed better in English sub-tasks than those who did not attend preschool. However, those who did not attend preschool performed better in Kiswahili than their counter parts. Teachers revealed that they create extra time to support children who did not attend preschool, which explains why such children performed better in Kiswahili

Does Marital Status Influence the Parenting Styles Employed by Parents?

The current study sought to establish whether parents’ marital status, influence their use of specific parenting styles in Kisauni District, Kenya. A correlational research design was employed to carry out this study. Stratified sampling technique was used to select preschools while purposive sampling technique was used to select preschool children to participate in the study. A sample size of 160 pre-school children together with their parents was purposively selected based on their performance level in curricular activities from 20 pre-schools. A questionnaire and an interview were used to collect data on parents’ demographics and their parenting styles. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to prepare and organize data for analysis to test significance levels between variables at 0.05.  Data were analyzed statistically using descriptive and inferential statistics. One way ANOVA techniques were utilized to establish whether there exist any significant relationships or differences in the means between parents’ marital status and their parenting styles. The findings indicated that parents’ marital status does not influence their parenting styles. The study therefore concluded that there is no significant relationship between parents’ marital status and the parenting styles they employ in bringing up their children. Keywords: marital status and parenting styles, parenting styles and preschool childre