Information Resources Acquisition and Utilisation as Correlates of Enhanced Learning Ability of Secondary School Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in North -Central Nigeria. for the Multidisciplinary Academic Conference on Attaining Sustainable Development In 21st Century : African Continent in the fast moving World : New strategies and approaches

Abstract

The study investigated information resources acquisition and utilisation as correlates of enhanced learning ability of secondary school students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in North-central, Nigeria. The research was guided by three (3) research questions and four (4) research hypotheses. Total enumeration research design was adopted for the study. The target population of the study was one hundred and one (101) teachers as the respondents from nine (9) Autistic schools in North-central, Nigeria. Split half Pilot study was conducted in three (3) different Autistic schools with thirty (30) copies of questionnaire being administered for reliability test, Cronbach Alpha formular was used to validate the research instrument and 0.87 was obtained depicting that the instrument was reliable to be used. The data collection instrument used for this study was structured questionnaire. One hundred and one (101) copies of the questionnaire were distributed in nine (9) Autistic schools but only eighty five (85) copies of the questionnaire were filled correctly, returned and were found useable for the analysis. Descriptive statistic, inferential statistics of Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and multiple regressions were used to analyse the data. The null hypotheses formulated to guide the study were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The result showed significant relationship between acquisition of information resources and enhanced learning ability of students with ASD (r = 0.397, P<0.05) was positively skewed, indicating a very low relationship and the hypotheses were rejected. The result showed significant relationship between information resources utilisation and enhanced learning ability of students with ASD (r = 0.189, P<0.05) was positively skewed, indicating a very low relationship and the hypotheses were rejected. The study concluded that information resources acquisition and utilisation utilisation improves the learning ability of ASD students. The study recommended that government, educational institutions, school libraries and non-governmental organisation should regularly collaborate to create awareness about autism and support autistic students morally and financially to ensure the children with autism reach their full potentials because some of the autistic children could possess savant skills.