Sub-theme 1: Significant difficulties in reading

All of the participants agreed that reading remained a huge challenge at their respective schools. This challenge was prominent amongst those learners classified as experiencing mild intellectual disabilities. According to the participants, the common intellectual disability they were faced with daily was poor reading. The views of some of the participant are captured in the selected extracts below:

P4: “The learners struggle to read. Some of them struggle from limited space orientation, where they see the “p” for a “b”, and the “s” and the “z” or the “s” and a “2”. They are unable to discern that, but the biggest problem, even with mainstream

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learners; reading is the greatest problem, because if you cannot read, you cannot understand the questions.”

P1: “So you are looking at a thirteen-year old in Grade 5. And the thirteen-year old cannot read, and he cannot spell a word, and it‟s basic words that we‟re talking about, Grade 1 and 2 words”. “Why can‟t you read this?” “I‟m not able to read this part”, which means they cannot read, but what did they do. They listened to all the other 30 children that read, and now they are able to read that.”

P6: “You have your children who have difficulty in reading, the basics, and your phonics. If I can cite one example ...; I have now a boy in my class, a Grade 6 boy, who does not know the difference between no (the opposite of yes) and know (to know something), the one that means Ok, you know.”

After probing the nature of the disabilities experienced in the classroom, the response was as follows:

P7: “Specifically with reading and writing it‟s a common problem.”

P8: ―Their learning barriers are language. If they come to us for the first time at 10 years old not being able to speak the language, or converse, or read or anything, then we do have a problem.‖

P5: “They can‟t tell me, they cannot retell a story that they read. Higher order questioning, thinking and reasoning – it‟s non-existent.”

My experience as a primary school teacher has clearly broadened my perception that early childhood experiences and the contributions that parents make regarding learners‘ vocabulary also play a vital role in the acquisition of reading. As a teacher, I have also observed through my years of teaching that learners who are exposed to good communication skills, storytelling and memorising words and books will be able to communicate more effectively and frequently. Vogel (2011:93) concurs, saying that researchers seem to agree that in order to read, learners need to master two

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distinct components: word recognition and word analysis and reading comprehension.

Lerner (2003:397) is of the opinion that, since reading is the basic skill for all academic subjects, failure in school can be traced to inadequate reading skills. Westwood (2007:94) feels that in the earliest stages of learning to read, children have not yet built up a large vocabulary of words they know instantly by sight, so they must use their knowledge of letters and groups of letters to help identify unfamiliar words. Children cannot really become independent readers unless they master the code. It is now generally accepted that explicit instruction in phonic principles needs to be part of all early reading programmes (Westwood, 2007:94).

As a researcher, I understand the above to mean that learners may have major difficulties in reading, attributed to the fact that the basic fundamentals of reading have not been consolidated or established in the lower grades. Resources and appropriate reading material are not always available or on the level of the learners. I also think that the home environment of these learners is a major factor in terms of the acquisition of basic language and reading skills. From personal experience, I have come to the conclusion that this gap is due to the illiteracy of parents, the prevailing poverty, the high unemployment rate, the high rate of high school drop- outs, and poor family values and morals.

In a study by Naidoo, Reddy and Dorasamy (2014:164), titled Reading literacy in primary schools in South Africa: Educator Perspectives on factors affecting reading literacy and strategies for improvement, it was established that the socio-economic factors that impacted on reading were: lack of early childhood development; poor health care; unemployment, lack of adequate housing; and, to an extent, single parent families.

A study by Hlalethwa (2013:91) titled Reading difficulties experienced by learners in the foundation phase in inclusive schools in Makapanstad, also concluded that reading difficulties were exacerbated by various factors, such as socio-economic factors, neurological factors, educational factors and many more. Hlalethwa

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(2013:91) further mentions that most teachers are not sure what methods to use when teaching learners to read, with the majority sticking to the one way approach to teaching reading, which hampers learners‘ reading abilities and encourages low reading levels. Lack of resources also contributes immensely to learners‘ reading difficulties.