A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Planned Teaching Programme on Knowledge Regarding Autism in Children among Parents and Pre-primary Teachers in Selected Schools of Udaipur City

Abstract

Background and Objectives: There are increasing cases of childhood autism in world and today being the third most common developmental disorder with 1 in 250 school children affected it is more common than down syndrome.

Aims: This study aimed at developing and evaluating a planned teaching programme. Hence, it was felt that an evaluative approach enables the investigator to evaluate the effectiveness of this planned teaching in terms of knowledge gain. The study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of planned teaching regarding autism in children in terms of the knowledge gained. Hence, a structured selfadministered questionnaire was prepared in which the group of samples which involved the pre-primary teachers and parents of the respective schools were administered questionnaire related to autism before and after the health teaching and these were used for collection of data.

Material and Method: The method adopted for the present study was evaluative approach as the study aimed at evaluating planned teaching program for assessing knowledge of 60 pre-primary teachers and parents in selected school of Udaipur city. In this study, the investigator selected two group pre-test-post-test quasi experimental designs to compare the effect of health teaching on knowledge regarding autism in children among parents and pre-primary teachers in selected schools of Udaipur city.

Result: The knowledge of autism among parents and pre-primary teachers was assessed. Hypothesis was tested at 0.05 levels. Hence, the research hypothesis (H1 ) is accepted that there is significant difference between pre-test and post-test knowledge score. The comparison of knowledge score showed that the pre-test knowledge scores of parents (7.53) were comparatively higher than that of the preprimary teachers (7.23) but, on the other hand, it was the opposite that is the post-test knowledge scores of the pre-primary teachers (15.67) were comparatively higher than that of the parents (14.80). Demographic variable educational qualification was found to have significant association with knowledge score for parents’ group.

Conclusion: The health teaching on knowledge regarding autism in children was found to be effective in increasing the knowledge in preprimary teachers and parents and also helps in early diagnosis and treatment of autistic children. The samples had a highly significant gain in knowledge after the planned teaching program. If it was to compare the knowledge of pre-primary teachers and parents it was found that the post-test scores of the teachers were higher than that of the parents, but it was the opposite as to that in the pretest scores. The planned teaching on knowledge of autism in children was found to be effective in enhancing to become aware of the disorder and early diagnosis and treatment.