The Effect of Applied Behavior Analysis on the Gross Motor Development of Autistic Children

BACKGROUND: Autistic children have abilities and characteristics that are different from each other, so different ways of interacting the environment autistic children individuals. The development of autistic children both physically, emotionally, intellectually, and psychosocially has a problem that results in the inhibition of children reaching a level of gross motor development that is appropriate to their age. Stimulation applied behavior analysis (ABA) in children with autism includes gross motor, fine motor, emotional, social, language, informational, and practical supports. An autistic child will feel that he is loved and wanted if more and more people in the family environment love and care for him. Based on this preliminary study, interviewing eight autistic schools in the provinces of DIY and Ponorogo, East Java, to 16 parents who have autistic children, the majority of parents (93%) think that by entering autistic children into a special school (SLB) in accordance with its limitations mean that their efforts can be said to be enough. Not all parents realize that stimulating and accompanying children with special needs can maximize gross motor development. AIM: This study aims to assess the effect of stimulation ABA on the gross motor development of children with autism. METHODS: Quasi-experiment “Pre-Post Control Group Design” was used in this study. The first observation is to determine the gross motor development of an autistic child before being given stimulation ABA and the second observation after being given the ABA stimulation. Samples were recruited using a purposive sampling technique with the criteria of parents and autistic children aged 6–12 years in the autistic schools of the provinces of Yogyakarta and Ponorogo, East Java. T-test and Wilcoxon applied in this study with significance level was <0.05. The significance level was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Result of data analysis showed in the experiment group before intervention, the category of the gross motor is enough category and after intervention, the category was high. Meanwhile, in the control group, there is no differences category between pre test and post test. there is a difference of the gross motor development of autistic children in intervention group and control group with p value 0.001 and 0.004 respectively. CONCLUSION: There is an effect of stimulation ABA on the gross motor development of autistic children in autistic schools with p (sig.) <0.05 means that Ha is accepted and Ho is rejected.