Picture Exchange Communication System (Pecs) Sebuah Strategi Pengoptimalan Kemampuan Komunikasi Anak Autis

Abstract

A child with autism is also called as child with special needs who in his education need to get special services. An autistic child is who lives in his own world, and tends to feel obstacles in interaction, communication, and social behavior. This study describes a process of how the Picture Exchange Communication System(PECS) becomes an Alternative strategy for optimizing the ability of autistic children to practice communication using non-verbal symbols. This study aims to examine the communication skills of early children with autism through a quantitative approach with the Single Subject Research method. The result shows that the PECS approach is effective in optimizing expressive communication skills in first grade students at SLB-B and Autis Bintoro Jember. This effectiveness can be seen from the increased test scores from baseline to intervention. In the baseline conditions, the test score of expressive communication skills performance was 21% and 67% in the intervention conditions, so that the mean increased by 46%. The data is supported by 0% overlap percentage which shows that this method is effective to increase the expressive sommunication skills. 
 
 Abstrak
 Salah satu yang termasuk anak berkebutuhan khusus adalah penyandang autis yang memerlukan pelayanan khusus dalam pendidikannya. Penyandang autis didefinisikan sebagai seseorang yang memiliki dunianya sendiri, yang dalam berinteraksi, berkomunikasi, dan berperilaku social kerap mendapati hambatan. Kajian ini mendeskripsikan proses bagaimana Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) menjadi sebuah strategi alternatif pengoptimalan kemampuan anak autis dalam mempraktikkan komunikasi dengan menggunakan simbol-simbol non-verbal. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengkaji kemampuan komunikasi anak usia dini yang menyandang autis melalui pendekatan kuantitatif dengan metode Penelitian Subjek Tunggal. Berdasarkan penelitian yang dilakukan, diperoleh hasil bahwa pendekatan PECS efektif untuk memaksimalkan kemampuan dalam berkomunikasi ekspresif pada siswa kelas satu di SLB-B dan Autis Bintoro Jember. Hal tersebut dapat dibuktikan melalui adanya peningkatan nilai tes yang bertambah di keadaan awal (baseline) setelah di intervensi. Pada saat awal (baseline), skor pada tes kemampuan ketika anak melakukan komunikasi ekspresif sebanyak 21%, dan ketika sudah di intervensi menunjukkan angka peningkatan mencapai 67%, sehingga dapat dikatakan reratanya meningkat sebanyak 46%.
 Kata Kunci: Pendekatan PECS, Autis, Komunikasi Ekspresif

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS): A strategy to improve children’s speaking ability

“…The PECS method can be used as an alternative in training communication for autistic children because it adapts to the communication characteristics and uniqueness of autistic children (Heryati & Ratnengsih, 2017). Khoiriyah (2020) PECS users are those who have poorly developed language skills, as well as those who do not have the will to communicate with others (Murwati, 2013). In line with that, Trimailani et al, (2015) emphasized that the use of PECS has a positive effect on increasing the communication skills of deaf children who have problems in pronouncing words.…”