Opinions of Special Education Teachers about Teaching Reading and Writing to Mentally Retarded Children

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The main purpose of this research is to state the opinions of special education teachers about teaching reading and writing to mentally retarded students. This research is designed descriptively. The participants of the research are 100 special education teachers. The data is received by a questionnaire prepared by the researcher. According to the findings, it is seemed that special education teachers don't depend on only one method while teaching reading and writing but they especially use sound and sentence analysis methods. These methods are used for normally developed children. There is no method that is developed for mentally retarded children in Turkey. New methods that consider cognitive and learning features of mentally retarded children are needed. Keywords:Mentally retarded children, special education teacher, methods of teaching reading and writing SUMMARY Purpose and Significance:The main purpose of this research is to state the opinions of special education teachers about teaching reading and writing to mentally retarded students. This research is important to evaluate applications made in our country in the light of methods and applications in foreign countries.

Prospective special education teachers metaphorical perceptions on the concept of special education teacher

“…Skill teaching may be considered to be important in the education of individuals with special needs. In the studies on the field of special education, skill teaching is emphasized more than scholar skills such as reading and writing (Eliçin, 2015;Şengül, 2008), solving math problems (Karabulut, 2015;Kasap, 2015;Yakubova et al, 2015), overlapping professional (Bennett, 2013;Kwon and Lee, 2016;Özbey, 2015) and daily life skills (Kalaycı, 2014;Kaya, 2015;Kurtoğlu, 2015;Stanton-Chapman and Brown, 2015). Social leadership/enlightening category features the role of special education teachers in bringing individuals with special needs in society, eliminating conflicts between the society and these individuals, and promoting the profession within the society.…”