Effect of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy on Self Concept of Male and Female Speech Disordered Students in Owerri Education Zone, Imo State

This study investigated the effect of rational emotive behaviour therapy on the self-concept of male and female speech disordered students in Owerri Education Zone of Imo State. The design of this study is quasi experiment which involved the pre-test, treatment, post-test with control group approach. Three research questions and three null hypotheses were formed to guide the work. The population of the study was a total of 2187 students who exhibited speech disorder in all the public secondary schools in Owerri Education zone of Imo State. The researchers sampled 40 students of the study. The sampling techniques employed are purposive and cluster. The instrument for data collection of this study were researchers made instrument titled: Speech Disordered Students Identification Scale and Speech Disordered Students Self-Concept Scale (SDSSCS) which was adequately validated and found to be reliable at 0.81 and 0.85 index respectively using Cronbach Alpha Statistics. Date collected were analysed using mean score and standard deviation to answer the research questions. The hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed among others that: REBT is effective in the improvement of self-concept of students with speech disorder behaviour, when tested, it was confirmed that the self-concept mean scores of students with speech disorder behaviour tested with REBT and control group at pre-test and post-test are significantly different; and REBT is effective in the improvement of the self-concept of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour, when tested, it was confirmed that the self-concept mean scores of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at post-test are not significantly different. From the above findings, the researchers recommended that: counsellors should make use of rational emotive behaviour therapy in the treatment of low self-concept among students with speech disorder.