Dyslexic students struggle to learn how to read. Yet, few studies reported on how dyslexic students learn to read. In this respect, special education teachers have adopted a myriad of ways to overcome dyslexic students’ reading problems. To respond to this need, the purpose of this study is to examine how phonology-based reading instruction could help dyslexic students improve their early reading abilities. Grounded in a mixed methods research design, four dyslexic students of primary school were recruited to participate in this study. The results of the study showed that the phonology-based reading instruction had a positive impact on improving the dyslexic students’ early reading abilities, particularly in Bahasa Indonesian-medium reading texts. This suggests that phonology-based reading instruction could effectively be implemented if special education teachers could enact phonological instruction as a prerequisite for identifying the students’ early reading ability and phonics instruction as an instructional reinforcement for building students’ early reading repertoire.

Kajian ini untuk melihat faktor-faktor esensial dari kesadaran linguistik dan kesadaran persepsi visual yang mempengaruhi kemampuan membaca permulaan pada anak tunagrahita. Faktor-kator yang dikaji meliputi kesadaran linguistik (fonem, morfem, semantik dan sintaksis) dan kesadaran persepsi visual (visual discrimination, visual spacial, visual figure and ground, visual memory) yang diduga menjadi prasyarat dalam belajar membaca permulaan. Subjek penelitian berjumlah 32 siswa dari lima SLB di Bandung. Hasil kajian ini menunjukkan, bahwa kedua faktor tersebut memiliki hubungan kuat terhadap kemampuan membaca permulaan anak tunagrahita. Berdasarkan Koefisien Beta secara parsial kesadaran linguistik memiliki hubungan jauh lebih kuat dibandingkan kesadaran persepsi visual. Nilai koefisien path kesadaran linguistik (0.72) sementara pada kesadaran persepsi visual nilai koefisien pathnya (0.25). Akan tetapi ada faktor esensial sebagai prasyarat membaca yang berkaiatan dengan aspek kesadaran linguistik yaitu kesadaran fonem dan sintaksis, sementara faktor esensial pada aspek kesadaran persepsi visual lebih berhubungan dengan discrimination dan visual memory. Kata Kunci: Kesadaran linguistik, kesadaran persepsi visual, membaca permulaan, dan tunagrahita Abstract: this study was conducted to find the essential factors of linguistic awareness and visual perception influencing the beginning reading skill of mentally retarded children. The factors studied include linguistic awareness (morphemes, semantics and syntax) and visual perception awareness (visual discrimination, visual spatial, visual figure-ground, and visual memory) which are assumed to be the prerequisites of learning early reading. The subjects of this research were 32 students from 5 special school in Bandung. The results show that both of the factors have strong influence towards mentally retarded children early reading skill. However, the Beta Coefficient it was is found that linguistic awareness has stronger relationship compared to the visual perception aspect. The value of the coefficient path in the linguistic awareness is 0.72, while the coefficient path value for linguistic awareness is 0.25. This means that linguistic awareness is influencing position as the prerequisite of early reading skill compared to the visual perception aspect. However, if studied further, it is found that not all variables related to either linguistic awareness aspect or visual perception have the same meaningful relationship with children reading skills. The most essential factor of reading prerequisite related to the linguistic awareness is related to the phoneme and syntax awareness, while the essential factor in visual perception is related to the visual discrimination and visual memory.

The objective of this study was to determine the use of tapioca flour as a heat insulator for learning media for students with hearing impairments. Experiments were done method by testing tapioca flour placed on the wall that heat radiated by bulb lamp with various intensities (i.e. 8, 10, and 12 W). The results showed that tapioca flour is a good heat insulator. This is confirmed by the test results using thermocouple tools showing a decrease in temperature of the insulator testing toolbox. The tapioca flour caused the heat from the lamp inside the box to be restrained from spreading out completely. The concept of heat radiation and the change of heat adsorbed by tapioca flour was explained, which can be further developed for learning media for students with hearing impairment. The results of this study are expected to facilitate teachers in providing understanding to students in understanding the occurrence of heat insulators, especially for students with hearing impairments.

The purpose of this study is to develop web-based learning media to improve reading comprehension of dyslexic students. Dyslexia is a condition caused by neurobiological abnormalities that are characterized by difficulty in  recognizing words accurately in spelling and inability to encode symbols which lead to reading disorder. The research method used is research and development. This research develops web-based learning media called LexiRoom learning applications. The LexiRoom web was trialed to dyslexic students of the fourth grade of elementary school and obtained effective results to help students to have better comprehension of words and sentences within a paragraph.

The implementation of life skills management carried out by schools for students with disabilities has a difference between one school and another, in this article we will analyze the comparison of the implementation of life skill management for students with disabilities in State Special Schools and private Special Schools. The study was carried out at State Special Schools and private Special Schools in Sukabumi District with 10 respondents for each school consisting of the principal, the vice principal of the curriculum section, teacher and school committee. The approach taken was a mixed method. The questionnaire was used to see the uniformity of opinion of the academic community in each school and to deepen the research data conducted interviews, observations and documentation studies in answering how to analyze the implementation of life skills education management in State Special Schools and private Special Schools. . The results showed that there were differences in life skills management between SLBN and SLBS, another finding was disagreement of opinions among the academic community in each school regarding life skills education management through its principles, namely planning, organizing, implementing and evaluating. The recommendation put forward that all academics must have the same understanding regarding life skills education management.