PENGARUH TERAPI BERMAIN TERHADAP KEMAMPUAN KOMUNIKASI ANAK AUTIS DI SLB TPA KABUPATEN JEMBER

Abstract

Autism is a complex development disorder attributed with communication, social interaction, and imagination activity. A problem on growth and development process would caure obstacles on the next growth and development process. One of the obstacles was communication disorder. Playing could stimulate children's muscles, cognitive, and emotion development. Playing also could increase the togetherness feeling between children and develop children's communication. This study aims to identify the effect of play therapy on autism children's communication ability in SLB TPA, Jember Regency. The study used pre experimental design with one group pretest posttest approach. The sample was 13 children of the whole population that was 22 children, determined using purpostive sampling method. The results showed that 9 children were on less communication level and 4 children were on adequate communication level before play therapy intervention. After play therapy was given, there were 3 children on less communication level, 9 children on adequate communication level and 1 child on good communication. There were 7 children who had communication ability increase. Data analysis using Wilcoxon Rank Test with 95% CI