Behavioral problems and academics of children in inclusive education – A cross-sectional survey

Children with disorders exhibit behavioral issues. Behavioral issues can stem from temporary stressful situations in a person's life or they might also represent more lasting disorders. Special needs children with behavioral disorders can display characteristics such as, inability to learn that is not explained by sensory, health or intellectual factors. The change in behavior can play a significant role in the academic achievements of children placed together in an inclusive environment. This cross-sectional survey is aimed at determining the effect of behavioral issues on academics of children in inclusive education. Purposive sampling technique was used for data collection from Inclusive Education systems of Rawalpindi and Islamabad after getting ethical approval from Internal Review Board in 2018. Sample size consisted of 12 children with special needs and 138 mainstream children. Students of Grade 1 with behavioral problems being reported by their class teachers were included in study after getting parental voluntary consent. Structured classroom activity, behavioral checklist and school routine skills checklist were used for data collection purpose. The result of this study showed that there was a significant difference between the structured activities, school routine skills and overall behavioral checklist of special needs group and main stream children. 75.3% of special needs children struggled with the structured activity whereas 66.7% of the mainstream children faced no difficulty at all. The school routine skills were completed by 89.9% of the children and only 33.3% of the special needs children were able to complete these skills during school hours. The behavior checklist exhibited that 94.9% of mainstream children exhibited no behavioral issues whereas 66.3% of special needs kids displayed behavioral concerns. It is concluded that there is a significant relationship between the overall behavior of the participants of both groups with the structured activity and the school routine skill.