PARENTING STYLE AND ITS EFFECTS ON CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS IN PILOT PRIMARY SCHOOL DADUR LANGTANG NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate parenting style and its effect on children with special education needs in pilot primary school Dadur, Langtang North L.G.A. The researcher formulated three research questions and one hypothesis to guide the study. The population of the study consisted of all the parents and teachers of pupils with special needs in Dadur Langtang North Local Government of Plateau State. The sample size of 100 (20 teachers and 80 parents) was used for the study. The sampling technique employed for the selection of the sample for the study was systematic and random sampling. The instrument used for the collection of data was questionnaire. The researcher used the frequency, percentage and mean to answer research questions and linear regression a to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study found out reasons why parents dispose negative attitude towards the education of pupils with special needs are lack of awareness which influence the negative attitude of parents towards their children’ education, inadequate improvement of children with special needs which influence parent attitude and negligence which is an attitude of parents of children with learning disabilities. The study also discovered that there is a significant relationship between parenting style and the education of pupils with special needs in pilot primary school Dadur, Langtang North. Based on the findings it was recommended that NGOs should uplift the attitudinal factors among parents of children with special needs, school administrators should dispose positive attitude towards children with special needs, creating awareness to enlighten parents on the need to educate children with special needs, awareness programme to eliminate discrimination by parents of children with special needs and teachers should be properly trained and retrained in order to fit into the educational system to meet up the demand of children with special needs.