CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY   

Good communication skills are the basis of learning, emotional development, and socialization throughout a young person's educational career and into the workforce. Youth require strong speech, language, and communication abilities to have a variety of life options. The majority of adolescents continue to develop their communication patterns throughout their school years and into adulthood. They acquire the abilities necessary for problem solving, establishing effective relationships, negotiating, and telling jokes. Thus, there is a connection between parental and kid communication styles. Several recent studies discovered that parents with low literacy levels are less likely to assist their children with reading and writing; are less likely to have children who read for pleasure  and are more likely to have children with lower cognitive and communicative skills (De Coulon, Meschi and Vignoles, 2018).

The setting supplied by parents and their persistent support may be more significant than any skill transfer [for the literacy development of their children] (Auerbach, 2020). The parental education level influences the communication pattern of early children. The degree of parental education corresponds with the cognitive development of infants aged 12 to 27 months (Robert 2021). Despite the significance of communication, some parents' education has affected their children's communication patterns in some manner. Parental education has a lasting impact on the communication patterns of children long into adolescence and adulthood.

Socially and emotionally, as well as academically, parents continue to be a crucial source of support. Due to their familiarity with their children over time, parents have varying perspectives on their children's communication abilities and needs; therefore, it is essential to maintain a good link between home and school. However, this is generally problematic since, as students progress through elementary school, their interaction with school often decreases. The home is important. Parents have the greatest impact on the academic success of their children through supporting their education at home, rather than by participating in school activities. Early intervention is crucial. The earlier parents become involved in their children's reading skills, the more significant and long-lasting the outcomes will be. Children acquire knowledge well before entering formal education. Parents are the first educators of a kid. The family and home environment of a kid has a significant impact on his or her communication style and academic accomplishment. This impact is greatest throughout the child's formative years, but persists throughout their schooling.

Reading aloud to infants and young children by their parents has a significant effect on their communication style. In the pre-school years, parents' reading aloud to their children is recognized as a significant predictor of literacy performance (Weinberger, 2020). Consequently, an uninformed parent could be incapable of reading to their children. This parental activity is associated with strong evidence of benefits for children, such as communication growth, reading achievement, and writing, the enhancement of children's language comprehension and expressive language skills, listening and speaking skills, later enjoyment of books and reading, and understanding narrative and story, Parental involvement is associated with positive outcomes for children, such children who are read to at a young age are more likely to develop an interest in reading later on.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Primary school students life is no doubt a time for speech and language development, hence, communication pattern should be of paramount interest to both parents of the children and their teacher. In many circumstances now, the primary school students in Nigeria fail to understand the need for good communication pattern and parents and has failed also to sensitize the primary school children on the need for proper communication pattern. Schools also has failed to integrate communication pattern as part of curriculum of primary schools in Nigeria. Hence ignoring the need and the roles good communication pattern to a child even through his/her career in adulthood.

Although numerous background variables affect the impact of the family and home environment (e.g., socioeconomic status, family size, etc.), but parental attitudes and behavior, particularly parental education in home learning activities, can be crucial to children's achievement and can counteract the effects of other factors. This study seeks to answer the following question: What effect does parental education have on the communication patterns of primary school students in Lagos?

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The general purpose of the study is to examine the effect of parental education on children's communication patterns in public primary schools. Specifically, the study sought :

i.          To establish whether parental education significantly influence children's communication patterns.

ii.        To determine the difference in communication patterns between children who are read to by their parents and their counterparts who are not.

iii.      To ascertain the difference in the fluency of children who parent are literate than those whose parent are illiterate

iv.      To investigate the impact of parent-child communication patterns on the academic success of in-school children

1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

HO1:  There is no difference in communication patterns between children who are read to by their parents and their counterparts who are not.

HO2: There is no significant difference in the fluency of children whose parent are literate than those whose parent are illiterate                

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study has theoretical significance as it lends credence to Albert Bandura’s social learning theory which sees human relationship as a basic unit of learning through observation, imitation and modelling. Parents and significant others in the child’s social life should therefore realize that the child learns more through observation and modelling. This study helps to endorse the parents education as it influences children communication pattern. Empirically, the study will add to the general body of knowledge and serve as reference material for student and scholars who wishes to conduct further studies on this topic.

1.6 SCOPE OF THIS STUDY

The scope of this study borders on the effect of parental education on children's communication patterns in public primary schools. The study is however delimited to selected primary schools in Gwagwalada Area council in FCT, Abuja.

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