Verbal ability of school children: An exploratory study in Dhaka city

Abstract

This cross-sectional study explored association between verbal ability and contextual factors amongst school children (N =116; ages 9 to 12 years) of Dhaka City. Despite several initiatives by the Government of Bangladesh, NGOs and INGOs to achieve Millennium Development Goal 2, consistency in children’s success is an alarming issue. Data were collected from 116 students of grade 4 (55.2%) and 5 (44.8%) by using Bangla version short form of child Parental Acceptance Rejection Questionnaire, PARQ (Fatema, 2008) and Bangla adapted version (Fatema & Afrose, 2011) of WISC-IV and from their 116 parents by using demographic questionnaire and adapted Bangla version of Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale II (FACES II) and. The empirical evidence confirms a strong positive association of children’s age, family adaptability and cohesion, perceived parental acceptance-rejection and mothers’ educational level with the verbal ability. These findings suggest that government needs to put attention on associated factors of verbal development to ensure a sturdy student life.