Communication difficulties among children aged three to six years diagnosed with language impairment(s) at Beanstalk Day Care and Nursery

Abstract

Introduction: In Uganda, Communication difficulties and speech-language disorders are existing in the communities. These difficulties are among the most common of childhood disabilities, affecting about 5%-8% of children in developing countries. Information on the different forms of communication difficulties and management approaches are not well known in communities. Objective: To find out communication difficulties and to assess the impacts of communication difficulties on learning among children aged three to six years diagnosed with language impairment at Beanstalk Day care and Nursery. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional quantitative study was carried out at Beanstalk Daycare and Nursery in Kiwatule from November 2020 to December 2020. The sample size was 23 children. Questionnaires were used to collect data. Data was managed and analyzed using SPPS version 25. Results: In this study, 91.3 % (21) of the children, where not able to produce intelligible speech that could be understood by other people other than their immediate family members. Most of the children 78.3 % (18) were not able to make themselves understood in words and more than half 13(56.5%) of the children were not able to make themselves understood through gestures. The majority 22(95.7%) of the children were not able to read. Most of them 91.3% (21) of the children were not able to write. More than half 14(60.9%) of the children had problems with mathematics Conclusion and recommendation: The majority of the children exhibited communication difficulties including verbal and nonverbal difficulties in expressing themselves using words and without words respectively. These had impacts on the children’s learning where the majority were unable to read, write and a reasonable number had problems in mathematics. The ministry of health should put in place campaigns to create awareness about the communication difficulties and its impacts on the livelihood of children with language impairment. As well as Community sensitization should be done to incorporate knowledge into practice to improve the communication status of children with language impairment.