Early childhood intervention services for children with special needs in selected early childhood centers in Abuakwa township

Abstract

This study explored the early childhood intervention services for children with special needs in selected early childhood centers in Abuakwa Township. Critical Disability Theory and the social learning theory of Bandura (1986) were adopted for the study. Pragmatism rooted in the mixed method approach was selected for the study. Crosssectional survey was the design used for the study. The target population comprised all teachers and parents of CwSN from five selected public early centers. A total of 65 teachers were randomly selected from the various early childhood center for the questionnaire administration. For the qualitative phase, 5 teachers and 5 parents were selected using purposive sampling. A structured questionnaire and semi-structured interview guide were the instruments used to gather data for the study. The quantitative data was analyzed using simple frequencies counts and percentages, means and standard deviations while the qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The findings established that both parties thus, parents and teachers render EI services to children with special needs to enhance their better well-being and development. In addition, the findings revealed that EI services for CwSN is drawn back by human and financial challenges. Therefore, it was recommended that parents and teachers in Abuakwa Township should not rest on their oars but rather put in more efforts in order to render the apt EI services to CwSN to have positive impacts on their psychological, mental, social, motor and well-being. Finally, all stakeholders in Abuakwa Township should make it their core mandate to put in efforts in providing the required human and capital resources to ensure that they will be able to provide the apt EI services to all early grade CwSN.