Investigation of perceptions of child development graduates working in special education and rehabilitation centers in the field of special learning difficulty

Specific learning disability, in general terms, is the situation in which individuals with normal or supernormal intelligence level experience problems in the academic field despite this situation. Specific learning disabilities generally manifest themselves in three academic areas as reading, writing and mathematics. While only one type of specific learning disability can be seen in children, sometimes more than one type of specific learning disability can be seen. The causes of specific learning disabilities are one of the issues that are wondered by both families and teachers. One of the places where children with specific learning disabilities spend most of their time during their developmental periods is schools. This period is also very important for students' academic and life success. In this regard, teachers play an important role in both the academic and life success of children with specific learning difficulties. The aim of this research is to reveal the competence perceptions of child development graduates working as teachers in special education and rehabilitation centers in the field of specific learning disabilities. In this context, the sample of this research consists of 200 child development graduate teachers working in special education and rehabilitation centers in the 2023-2024 academic year. The data of the research were collected using the Personal Information Form and the Specific Learning Disability Area Teacher Competency Scale. SPSS 22 Package Program was used to analyze the data. Parametric and non-parametric statistical analyzes were performed within the scope of the distribution of the data. T-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Post-Hoc test statistics were used to analyze the data. According to the findings of the research, it has been found that the perception of competence in the field of specific learning disabilities of child development graduates working as teachers in special education and rehabilitation centers is high and there is a statistically significant relationship between teachers' gender, age, number of children and duration of professional service with their perception of competence in the field of specific learning disabilities.