Teachers evaluation on the factors effected the qualities of self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder 5 – 6 years old

122 HNUE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE Social Sciences, 2020, Volume 64, Issue 4D, pp. 122-128 This paper is available online at TEACHERS EVALUATION ON THE FACTORS EFFECTED THE QUALITIES OF SELF-HELP SKILLS FOR CHILDREN WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT AND AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER 5 – 6 YEARS OLD Nguyen Thi Tham Faculty of Special Education, Hanoi National University of Education Abstract. Developing self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder is very necessary and important. With the self-help skills, children will have independent life. In this article, the author will focus on the factors affecting the development of self-help skills for children with visual impairments and autism spectrum disorders 5-6 years old via a survey of 30 teachers teaching children with visual impairment and multiple disabilities in Hanoi, Quang Ninh and Hai Phong. The results show that the group of factors that influence the teaching of self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder are “The level of disability of children”, “Methods and teaching skills of teachers”, “The cooperation of school and family”; The groups of factors that have less influence in teaching self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder are “Children's cooperation”; “School facilities,” “Time to teach specific skills to children”. Studying these influencing factors will be the basis for centers and schools to adjust to the capabilities and needs of children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder. Keywords: self-help skills, visual impairment, autism spectrum disorder, factors. 1. Introduction The authors Grimmet, Eric S Summer, Sharon, Parker, 2008, Evidence – Based Communication Practices for Children with Visual Impairment and Additional Disabilities, Journal of Visual Impairment & Blind, New York, Vol 102, Iss 9, pp.540-552 did a research over 202 visually impaired children from birth to infant, the results showed that about 60% of these 202 children were accompanied by other disabilities such as: hearing impairment, motor disability, mental retardation, and cerebral palsy [1]. Bruce Susan (2015) in the research “Communication and Language in learner who are deaf and multiple disabilities”, American Annals of Deaf, Washington, Vol 160, Issue 4, also found that children with multiple disabilities increasingly account for more in the total number of children with disabilities. In particular, about 30-40% of children with hearing disabilities have at least one or more other accompanying disabilities, mainly visual impairments, intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders and especially deafness and blind [2]. Besides, the authors Erin (1989), Alexander (1990) & Groenveld (1993) and WiliiamMac L & Lee, M (2002) showed that the percentage of children with visual impairment and cerebral palsy accounts for about 80%, with epilepsy is 60%, hydrocephalus 20%, hearing impairment 10% and Received April 21, 2020. Revised April 14, 2020. Accepted May 7, 2020. Contact Nguyen Thi Tham, e-mail address: thamnguyencwd@gmail.com Teachers evaluation on the factors effected the qualities of self-help skills for children with... 123 intellectual disability, autism is about 80% [3], [4]. Thus, the number of children with multiple disabilities including children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder is increasing in the group of children with visual impairments and the care and education for this group of children needs specific programs and methods. Nguyen Minh Phuong, Nguyen Ha My, Tran Bich Ngoc, Pham Thi Hai Yen (2019) with the study “Conditions to ensure the succes of inclusive education for children with disabilities” showed that there are a lot of factors which affect on the effectiveness of inclusive education for children with disabilities, including of children with visual impairment and autism. They are (1) facilities, teaching equipment; (2) Policy framework and implementation; (3) curriculum and teaching content; (4) capacity of teachers: knowledge about incusive eduacation, children with disabilities and teacher’s teaching skills, ; (5) the coordination of educational forces: teachers and parents [5]. In the study Method of developing self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder published in Science journal of Hanoi National University of Education No. 9AB, Volume 64, in September 2019, the authors pointed out that some specific methods of teaching self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder are “forward chain”, “reverse chain”, “Modelling”, “Practice and practice” [6]. In particular, the authors also pointed out the process of educating self-help skills for children with multiple disabilities including the following steps: identify initial status; choose self-help skills and analyse skills into small steps; guide self-help skills according to the analysed steps; re- evaluate the child's skill level. However, this study has not clarified the factors affecting self- help skills teaching for children with visual impairments in general and visually impaired children with autism spectrum disorder 5-6 years old in particular. Therefore, in this article, we focus on the factors affecting the development of self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder in theory and reality in institutions caring and educating children with visual impairments in Hanoi, Quang Ninh and Hai Phong. By analysing these influencing factors, educational institutions and teachers will be able to adjust how to teach self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder. 2. Content 2.1. Factors affecting the development of self-help skills of children aged 5 – 6 with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder In the process of developing self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorders, there are many efficiency factors. These factors may come from children themselves or from their surroundings such as teachers, family, friends and class. - Factors related to children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorders: These include factors such as activeness, active participation and disability, cognitive ability, and behavior of children. A research shows that children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorders have certain difficulties, have language, behavior and feeling disabilities that make them unable to understand other people and not make others understand themselves; difficulties in being impatient to performing tasks, fine motor skills and rough motor skills are very awkward [7]. This has a strong influence on the child's self-help skills, most of which are dependent on others. In addition, children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorders have limitations in cognition related to the processes of sensory, perception, memory, thinking and imagination which affect the formation of self-help skills. Children also have little incentive to actively learn the skills, so they also influence the development of self- help skills. - Family environment: The family is the first cradle for a child to develop in all aspects, Nguyen Thi Tham 124 especially in emotion [8]. It is the safest and closest environment for children but in fact, due to the impact of many pressures from life, many families and parents leave their children to grandparents and maids to teach, nurture and take care of them every day. Instead of patiently waiting for the child to do it, parents do it for the child, so it does not waste their time. On the other hand, parents accept the thought about the child's existence. They believe in spirituality and believe that their children are suffering from the disadvantages for other family members, making the child even more pampered. All of these are barriers that prevent children from developing and working [8]. - Teachers: Teachers are the ones who directly teach children, take on the duties of teaching children directly. In addition, teachers are also people who are close, understand and interact with children daily and know what difficulties they are facing, from which they discuss with family and family to develop appropriate personal plans for children [7] 8]. Therefore, more than anyone, teachers have to grasp the physiological characteristics, abilities as well as the difficulties of children in the problem of self-help at school. Hence, the teacher is the one who decides whether to use methods to develop self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder or not. If yes, which method to use? - Classroom environment: Friendship is extremely important factor for developing self-help skills and a measure to evaluate yourself. Through friendship, children can compare themselves with other children, children can imitate and learn from their peers [9]. Therefore, helping children understand which behaviors are good to develop and which ones to eliminate is extremely important and necessary for teachers. If children are often inferior and disrespectful by their classmate, they will have a feeling of abandonment and children will develop jealousy and passivity. Therefore, when building a circle of friends for children, teachers need to choose children with a positive attitude, sympathy, and desire to help their peers to be peer supporters [8]. 2.2. Situation of factors affecting the development of self-help skills of children aged 5 – 6 with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder 2.2.1. Purpose The study shows the results of teacher evaluation of factors affecting to skill teaching for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder. 2.2.2. Methods Main methods are used as the following: - Interview teachers, parents; - Survey questionnaire for teachers; - Synthesis, document analysis - Mathematical statistics 2.2.3. Research area and object - The study was conducted at educational centers in Ha Noi, Hai Phong and Quang Ninh - Objects: 30 teachers who are teaching children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder in educational centers. 2.2.4. Results To understand better the impact of factors to the development of self-help skills of children aged 5 – 6 with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder, we conducted a survey of 30 teachers who have been providing assistance to children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder in Khanh An center, Anh Duong center and the Early Intervention class of Nguyen Dinh Chieu special school - Hanoi, the center inclusive education in Tam An - Quang Ninh, Hai Phong blind school. The influence of the factors on developing self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder is assessed according to the following criteria: Teachers evaluation on the factors effected the qualities of self-help skills for children with... 125 Very influential: 3 points Influential: 2 points Little influence: 1 point No influence: 0 points The results obtained are as follows: Table 1. Factors affecting the development of self-help skills of children aged 5 – 6 with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder No. Factors Total points 𝑿 Order 1 The degree of disability of children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder 72 2.4 2 2 Cognitive ability of children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder 57 1.9 6 3 Teachers’ methods of teaching self-help skills 76 2.53 1 4 Teachers' qualifications, awareness and experience in teaching multi-disabled children 56 1.86 7 5 School facilities 25 0.83 9 6 The attention and support of the family 63 2.1 5 7 Program, content of teaching self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder 70 2.33 3 8 Collaboration between family and school in teaching self-help skills for children 68 2.26 4 9 Time to teach self-help skills for children at school 55 1.83 8 𝑿 2.01 Comments: Through the data table above, it can be seen that there are many factors affecting the development of self-help skills for children aged 5-6 with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder and the influence level of the factors is Influential (X = 2.01) . Especially, each factor has a very different influence and is specified as follows: Ranked in the first place among all the factors is “Teachers’ methods of teaching self-help skills” with 𝑿 = 2.53. Among the 30 surveyed teachers, 16/30 teachers chose Very influential, 14/30 teachers chose Influential, none of the teachers selected Little influence or No influence. Talking to teacher Đ.T.T.T at Khanh An center, she said that this is an important factor, which decides on the effectiveness of teaching self-help skills for children. Many teachers still apply old teaching methods that are not suitable for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder such as presentations, modeling, so it is difficult for children to perform the tasks. Teachers need to teach self-help skills through specific methods such as task analysis, teaching steps in sequence, inverse sequence, daily practice, using real objects, real objects, and pictures step-by-step illustrations for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder easy to follow. Ranked the second with 𝑿 = 2.4 is the factor “ The degree of disability of children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder” that most teachers chose at the level of Very influential (13/30), Influential (16/30) and Little influence (01/30). According to teachers, it is more difficult to teach self-help skills for blind children than those with poor vision. By using Nguyen Thi Tham 126 the remaining visual field, children can observe their friends and teachers to model and imitate. Because self-help skills are skills that children can learn daily through imitating people around them. On the other hand, the more serious visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder are, the more difficult it is to teach self-service skills. By observing the children in Khanh An center, we found that children with serious visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder were unable to perform self-help skills, even eating and walking. Hygiene with these children is also very difficult. The factor that teachers also considered to have a great influence on teaching self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder is “Program, content of teaching self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder” with the average points of 𝑋 = 2.33. At the schools and centers we surveyed, teachers actively provided individualized content and programs for each child, there was no self-help training program specifically for children with multiple disabilities. It is also difficult for teachers to select and come up with appropriate plans for children. Ranked in fourth place with 𝑿 = 2.26 is the factor “Collaboration between family and school in teaching self-help skills for children “with 14/30 teachers chose Very influential, the rest is Influential and Little influence. Talking to teachers who participated in the survey, they said that many families leave the care and education for child to school, even though the teacher sent an individual education plan to the parents. In particular, after each self-service skill training session, children initially formulate skills, when they return home, because parents are afraid that the children are not able to do it and also be impatient, the family mainly do things for the children (spoon feed them, dress them etc.). This greatly affects the training of self-help skills that teachers have instructed for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder in class. Families also rarely actively share and exchange with teachers to teach children self-help skills appropriate to their abilities and needs. Along with the above factor, the factor “The attention and support of the family” also greatly affects the effectiveness of teaching self-help skills for visually impaired children with autism spectrum disorder with 𝑿 = 2.1. For example: N.T.V and H.L.T are both children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder of the same level. Yet, V gets more attention and support from his parents, so it is much easier to teach him than T because T’s parents do not care much about him. There is a supporter who follows to help T, feeds him and does everything for him. Thus, it is very difficult to teach him how to eat by himself. Teacher V.T.A also shared that many families follow the guidance of the teachers so their children quickly develop self-help skills, but for the family who pays little attention and guidance to the children but often helps them instead, the children become passive, unable to perform the skills. Other factors that affect less in teaching self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder are “Cognitive ability of children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder” (𝑋 = 1.9); “Teachers' qualifications, awareness and experience in teaching multi-disabled children” (𝑋 = 1.86); “Time to teach self-help skills for children at school” (𝑋 = 1.83). These factors, according to teachers, are influential but the level of influence is not high. In particular, the teachers said that if teachers have experience and training in teaching children with visual impairments, it is better to teach self-help skills for children. The difference between factors affecting teaching self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder is illustrated in the following chart: Teachers evaluation on the factors effected the qualities of self-help skills for children with... 127 𝑋 Chart 1. Influence level of factors affecting the development of self-help skills of children aged 5 – 6 with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder 3. Conclusions There are many factors affecting the development of self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorders 5-6 years old such as factors related to children, factors related to teachers, families, classroom facilities, classroom psychology elements. Based on a survey of 30 teachers in care and education facilities for visually impaired children for 9 factors, the results showed that there are factors that have a great influence of developing self-help skills for children with visually impaired and autism spectrum disorder 5-6 years old. In order to teach self-help skills for children with visual impairment and autism spectrum disorders, teachers need to have different ways to overcome these factors and adjust issues related to classroom environment as well as families of children with disabilities. REFERENCES [1] Sharon, Grimmet, Eric S Summer, Parker, 2008, “Evidence – Based Communication Practices for Children with Visual Impairment and Additional Disabilities”. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blind, New York, Vol 102, Issue 9, 540-552. [2] Susan, Bruce & Boder, Christy, 2015. Communication and Language in Learner who are Deaf and Multiple Disabilities, American Annals of Deaf, Washington, Vol 160, Issue 4. [3] Wiliiam, L & Lee, M, 2002. Learning Together: A Creative Approach to Leaning for Children with Visual Impairment and Additional Disabilities, Lon