The Effects of Look and Say on Reading Performance, Interest And Gender of the Intellectually Disabled Pupils in Oyo State Special Elementary Schools

Abstract

Education of children with special needs have garnered the focus of stakeholders in education, just as reading is undeniably a tool for all other subjects. Learning to read is unarguably a skill that must be acquired by normal, as well as special needs learners, as a foundation for reading to learn. Consequently, this study examined the effects of look and say reading strategy on the reading performance and interest of the intellectually disabled pupils in Oyo State. The research design adopted for the study was the pre-test, post- test control group quasi experimental design, using 2x2 factorial matrix. The participants involved fifty-six (56) Intellectually Disabled (ID) pupils from special schools in Ibadan and Oyo, Oyo State. The special schools were clustered into two groups and two schools were purposively assigned to intervention. Three (3) self constructed and validated instruments were used for data collection. They are Look and Say Reading Strategy Guide (LSRS), Reading Test (RT) and Pupils' Interest Scale (PIS). Six (6) hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The data collected were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The independent variable is look and say reading strategy, while the dependent variables are reading performance and pupils' interest. Gender was used as a moderating variable. The result of the study showed that there was a significant effect of intervention (reading strategies) on ID pupils' reading performance {F (1, 62) = 113.565, P<0.05}. Mean score of look and say reading strategy is (X = 15.64), and conventional group (control) scored the least (X=7.14) in reading performance. The study also revealed that there was a significant effect of intervention (reading strategy) on the intellectually disabled pupils' interest in reading {F (1, 62) =13.483, P<0.05}. Mean score of look and say reading strategy is (X = 26.02), and conventional group (control) scored the least (X = 8.74) in interest in reading. It revealed that there is no significant main effect of gender (moderating variable) on reading performance and interest to reading. Findings also implied that the interaction of intervention and gender do not impede on intellectually disabled pupils' performance and interest to reading. The paper concludes that English language teachers should adopt look and say reading strategy as an innovative method for ID pupils for improved performance.