The literacy development opinions and suggestions of special education teachers working with children with mild mental retardation

ABSTRACT THE LITERACY DEVELOPMENT OPINIONS AND SUGGESTIONS OF SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS WORKING WITH CHILDREN WITH MILD MENTAL RETARDATION Aysun Çolak Special Education Major Anadolu University, Institute of Educational Sciences, August, 2001 Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yıldız UZUNER The purpose of the present study was to analyze the opinions and suggestions of special education teachers working in an elementary school and vocational education center for mildly mentally retarded children in Eskişehir. The study was designed qualitatively and semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven special education teachers. The interview data were analyzed inductively and themes were formed. Research findings consist of these inductively analyzed results. The findings showed that the teachers belived that like normally developing children mentally retarded children become literate developmentally. However, their becoming literate is considered as being delayed comparing to normal children. Although the teachers reported developmental point of view, they reported reading readiness activities. They mainly used standart sentences. The teachers reported many problems in terms of teaching literacy to their mentally retarded students. Some of the main problems they reported are as follows: The lack of suitable literacy materials, various level students in a single classroom, inappropriate literacy curriculum, and lack of parental support. The teachers provided several suggestions for solving the problems. Among the suggestions, these were reported frequently: Constructing classrooms for similar level students, providing various and appropriate literacy materials, and applying parent training programs for literacy.