Views of teachers working in a special education and rehabilitation center on reading and writing teaching

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the views of teachers working in a special education and rehabilitation center on reading and writing teaching and offer a variety of solutions to problems arising during this period. Method: The study was carried out with a case study design, which is among qualitative research methods. Within the scope of the study, interviews were conducted with 13 special education and rehabilitation center teachers carrying out their duties in Hatay province İskenderun district via semi-structured interview form. The data acquired from the interviews conducted with the participants were analyzed descriptively. Findings: The findings of the study demonstrated that all of the special education and rehabilitation center teachers would check precondition skills prior to reading and writing teaching. These skills checked were fine and gross motor skills, phonological awareness, preschool skills, listening and attention skills and seeing and hearing control. It was found that in order to develop the skills, the teachers did muscle developing exercises (holding a pencil, playdough, coloring a limited area, dotted writing), concept developing exercises, phonological discernment exercises (dictation) and attention developing exercises. Most special education and rehabilitation center teachers stated that they used a sound-based phrase method when teaching reading and writing. Another finding presented as a result of the study is that most teachers used book sets when teaching reading and writing and they usually used the dictation study and question and answer method as the assessment and evaluation method. In the study, it was found that the special education and rehabilitation center teachers had issues with their students particularly concerning their families and absenteeism and as a solution to these issues, they offered doing more exercise, informing the families and having more active students. The findings related to whether the special education and rehabilitation center teachers needed any training for reading and writing teaching demonstrated that most of them did not need any training. Another finding presented in the study is that most special education and rehabilitation center teachers were not adequately supported by the families during the process of reading and writing teaching and they expected the families to be more active and do exercise more regularly. In the study, it was also found that the special education and rehabilitation center teachers were in touch and collaboration with the support training room teacher concerning academic progress, methods and technics. Conclusion and Recommendation: Another finding presented in the study is that the teachers usually checked precondition skills such as fine and gross motor skills, phonological awareness and preschool skills. They also did muscle developing exercises, concept developing exercises and phonological discernment exercises to develop the aforementioned skills. As a result of the study, it was found that the teachers usually used a sound-based phrase method on the basis of book sets when teaching reading and writing. It was determined that the special education and rehabilitation center teachers usually did assessment and evaluation via the dictation study and question and answer method. As a result of the study, the distresses faced by the teachers were found to be the families' lack of interest in the process and the students' lack of attention, bad memory and unwillingness. In addition, it was found that most special education and rehabilitation center teachers were in collaboration with the support training room teacher during the process.