Methods teachers use in teaching daily living skills to learners with intellectual disabilities at Yumba special school in Tamale Metropolis

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out the methods teachers use in teaching daily living skills to learners with intellectual disabilities at Yumba Special School for the Intellectually Disabled. The study was qualitative and adopted a case study design. The method for data collection was interviews. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample size of 10 participants for the study. Data were analysed thematically. The results revealed that cooperative method, direct method,interactive method and peer tutoring were methods teachers used in teaching daily living skills to learners with intellectual disabilities. Additionally, teachers mainly concerntrated on few areas of daily living skills such as basic self-care skills, social skills and community use skills.The results of the study also revealed challenges teachers face in teaching daily living skills which included, inadequate provision of teaching and learning resources, large class sizes, inadequate trained personnel and lack of motivation. The researcher recommended that teachers in the school should make use of other methods such as, demonstration method, one-on-one method, and activity method which are very practical to facilitate the understanding of learners. Moreover, in- service courses should organise to teachers in the school to improve on the methods in teaching daily living skills to these learners. It was also recommended that the school should include the other aeras of daily living skills in the curriclum. The school administration should ensure that learning/teaching resources needed in teaching daily living skills are available in these schools. Finally, it was recommended that government should provide enough funds for construction of adequate classrooms to help reduce the challenges.