A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF BIRTH ORDER T PUPIL’S READING AND

COMPREHENSION ABILITY USING THE INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY COUNSELING

METHOD

I. Introduction

Reading is the most basic skills. It provides access to other skills and knowledge,

facilitates lifelong learning and open may doors – employment, training, higher education and

lifelong learning. Pupils who don’t read well face serious barriers as they become adults they

will attempt to earn a living wage to support their children’s learning and to fully participate in

civic and community life. They are unable to gain access to a wealth of print information that

readers take for granted and they miss out on the joy of reading for pleasure. As such, it is

important to develop the grade III St. Dominic at Tenement Elementary School their reading and

comprehension ability. This was done studying the impact of pupil’s birth order to reading and

comprehension ability using Individual Psychology Counseling Method.

II. Rationale

The area that the researcher wants to investigate is whether or not birth order of

her Grade III pupils has an impact on their reading and comprehension ability. Marion Marana

suggests that birth order has strong consistent effects on pupil’s personality traits that affect

their reading and comprehension ability. He argues that firstborns are more conscientious, more

socially dominant, less agreeable and less open to new ideas compared to laterborns.

This study aims to answer the following research questions:

1. Does pupil’s birth order has an impact to their reading and comprehension ability

using Individual Psychology Counseling Method?

2. Are the pupils reading and comprehension level increased after implementing the

Individual Psychology Counseling Method with regards to their birth order in the family?
III. Methods and Design

Participants

The pupils selected for the study were Grade III ST. Dominic at Tenement

Elementary School who are frustration readers. There were 11 pupils belong to this

group consisting of 4 boys and 7 girls.

Materials

The survey is composed of forms with three (3) parts. The first part used the

Family Background and Student Personal Data Record Form. The second part used

Family Counseling Form to be filled up by their parents which included questions

involving problems in child at home and to assess birth order. The third part is the PHIL-

IRI Oral Tests to assess their reading and comprehension ability.

Procedure

The researcher gathered baseline data from her pupils. She let her pupils filled

up the Student’s Personal Data and Family Background Form showing their family

background. She also called up a HR PTA meeting to let the parents know their child’s

reading ability in school and have them filled up the Family Counseling Form. After that,

the researcher analyzed the data filled in by the pupils and parents and studied the

impact of a child’s birth order to their reading and comprehension level showed in the

PHIL-IRI Oral Pretest.

Counseling

When they got low scores of the reading test, their attention were called up and

did counseling using Individual Psychology method. They were not punished by giving

low grades but instead, they were cheered up to do their best next time and encouraged

to have more practice in reading and comprehend the text they read well. The attention

of the parents was called up to inform problems their child’s performance in reading

comprehension to have a collaborative plan on their reading progress.

IV. Results

Table 1. The following were the results of the PHIL-IRI Pre Test surveys taken:

READING LEVEL PRE TEST

DATE : JULY , 2017 PRE TEST

FRUSTRATION READERS

INSTRUCTIONAL READERS

INDEPENDENT READERS

TOTAL

Table 2. Pupil’s Birth Order and Reading Level

Figure 1 below summarizes the survey made using Individual Psychology

Counseling Method and the PHIL-IRI-Oral Pretest Result.

Figure 2 below summarizes the survey made using Individual Psychology

Counseling Method and the PHIL-IRI-Oral Pre test Result.

The frustration readers on the PHIL-IRI-Oral Pretest had shown significant

improvement in their reading and comprehension level as shown in Figure 2 after

identifying their birth order using the Individual Psychology Counseling Method. As such,

it was ascertained that the method used to determine pupil’s birth order is effective in

developing reading and comprehension ability of pupils.

V. Conclusion

The fact that one can reap great benefits from reading cannot be doubted or

questioned. It is for the reason that teachers must instill a real love for reading and

groom them into becoming lifelong readers. To facilitate this, Individual Psychology
 Counseling Method in determining pupil’s birth order can broadly help pupils on

improving frustration readers into independent readers.

VI. Recommendation

Allow children to have longer reading time to increase their vocabulary and to

have ample time to answer comprehension questions.

VII. References

http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/birth_order.htm

http:/www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/EducationalPracticesSeriesPdf/prac12e.pdf

Conducted by:

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