Multimodal Strategies in Teaching Children with Autism: A Discourse Analysis

Abstract

Djatmika, Agus Hari Wibowo, Sugini, Haslina Halim, Bahtiar Mohamad.

The process of teaching and learning involving children with autism requires teachers to be creative in designing special and effective strategies to ensure students’ understanding. This is due to the fact that these children have problems in communicating with others, thus need special attention from the teachers. The present research hopes to further understand the needs of these children by examining strategies undertaken by teachers at the Schoolsfor Exceptional Children and Autism Centers in Solo citywhich assist children with autism. Five classes were observed and recorded audio-visually. Data representing the aspects of verbal behaviors, non verbal behaviors, and teaching aids exploitation were collected. Results show that the condition of autism children is a primary influence on the strategy in exploiting multimodal aspects. Thus, teachers must design different approaches in transferring knowledge to these children. In general, teachers always perform verbal exploitation in collaboration with the nonverbal aspects such asfacial gestures, body movements, standing positions, and paralinguistic resources such as intonation and loudness. The study also found thatout the five classes being studied, two classes were supported by an effective use of teaching aids. The findings contributed towards a better understanding for teachers and parents of the needs of autism children during the teaching and learning process.