A Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Self-Instructional Module Regarding Learning Disabilities of Primary School Children among Primary School Teachers in Selected Schools at Coimbatore

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: Children represent the future, and ensuring their healthy growth and development ought to be a prime concern of all societies. They are in a continuous process of growth and development. Any alteration in its course leads to developmental disorders of learning. The learning disability plays a significant role as a silent handicap among children. It is estimated that 4-5% of students in school have learning disability. As there are no specific test to identify children with learning disability, health professionals have to rely mainly on teacher's report for its diagnosis. Previous studies have proved that teacher's towards such children have great influence towards their recovery. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: To assess the pre test and post test knowledge of experimental and control group of teachers regarding learning disabilities.

1. To compare the pre test and post test knowledge of experimental and control group of teachers regarding learning disabilities.

2. To compare the post test knowledge of experimental and control group of teacher regarding learning disabilities.

3. To find out significant association between knowledge of experimental and control group of primary school teachers and selected demographic variables regarding learning disabilities. METHODOLOGY: The research design adopted for this study was quasi experimental design and research approach adopted for this was to evaluative the educative approach. The sample size was 60 teachers. In this, 30 teachers were selected for experimental group and 30 for control group by purposive sampling method. Teachers were selected in selected schools at Coimbatore. Data was collected by using structured questionnaire, this consists of two sections. Section I on Demographic variables and Section II on Questionnaire regarding knowledge. RESULTS: The finding of the experimental group of teacher's pre test knowledge and mean score was 16.6 (41.50%) and level of knowledge was inadequate. In post test knowledge score was 33.3 (83.25%). Now the level of knowledge was adequate in experimental group. Similarly in the control group pre test knowledge mean score was 17.2 (43.00%) and post test knowledge mean score was 19.1 (47.75%). In the comparison of experimental group and control group. In the pre test there is no significance difference between the experimental and control group but after self instruction module it is observed significant difference between experimental and control group. Teachers gained knowledge above 41.75% more knowledge on learning disabilities after administration of self instruction module. This 41.75% of knowledge gain is the net benefit of this study which indicates the effectiveness of self instructional module learning disabilities in experimental group than control groups. The student independent't' test and chi square shows there was significant association between post test knowledge score and selected demographic variables in experimental group like age and experience of teachers than control group. CONCLUSION: The findings of the study showed that a paediatric nurse conducted training programme regarding learning disabilities among the primary school teachers. The study revealed theta the level of knowledge regarding learning disability was low among school teachers in control group and concluded that need for providing knowledge on learning disability is an important strategy to utilize teachers as effective contributors towards child health services.