Improvement on gross motor skills of intellectual disability students through games

Abstract

People with Intellectual Disability (ID) can and do learn new skills, but they learn them more slowly. Children and adults who were consistently retarded were found to be significantly lower than non-retarded people in measures of physical development, gross motor skills, and fine motor skills. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of games toward gross motor skills on ID students. This study uses a quantitative method with a quasi-experimental design. Subjects were 28 moderate mental retardation students institutionalized at the Gelora Karya Special Needs School Majalengka, West Java, Indonesia. The Sig value obtained was 0.001 and the T-score was 3.774. The value of 0.025 is a significant level obtained from 0.05: 2 = 0.025 and 20 is the degree of freedom (df), namely n-k-1 = 22-1-1 = 20. These results indicate that games have an influence on students' motor skills. Games can develop themselves optimally in physical, motor, social, emotional and cognitive aspects. Moderate mentally retarded students have difficulty doing physical activities or basic movements. They can participate in playing activities but with simple directions, therefore they need practices that can develop their physical motor skills.