Using Multisensory Activities to Decrease Stereotypic Behaviors of a Student with Severe Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

The objectives of this study were 1) to decrease stereotypic behaviors of a student with severe autism spectrum disorder by using multi-sensory activities 2) to analyze the abilities of using arms and hands of a student with severe autism spectrum disorder for functional movement. The case study, selected by purposive sampling, was a 10 year old male who was diagnosed with severe autism spectrum disorder with Sensory Processing Dysfunction. He was studying in primary level at special education school who has the stereotypic behaviors of tapping fingers on objects in the hands, using objects to hit the other hand, clapping, and staring at the object in the hands while tapping fingers. These behaviors continued and repeated more than 35 times within 5 minutes span. The research model is Mixed Method. The instruments that were using in this research included 1) stereotypic behaviors frequency observation in severe spectrum autism students. 2) the multi-sensory activities which consists of 4 Individual Implementation Plans (IIP) which are Multi-Sensory Shakers, Watering Plant, Letter Soup Scoop and Magic Box 3) an observation form on the abilities of using arms and hands while using the multisensory activities in terms of eye – hand coordination, prehension pattern, motor control, bilateral hand use and transfer of objects between hands 4) Reinforcement assessment. The researchers performed the multisensory activities per week, for 8 weeks, resulting in a total of 32 sessions. The data were analyzed by using percentage, mean, standard deviation and descriptive analysis. The results showed that the frequency of stereotypic behaviors before using the multi-sensory learning had a mean frequency of 35.8 times/period (20 minutes) and standard deviation is 6.5. After using the multi-sensory learning had a mean frequency of 8.3 times/period (20 minutes) and standard deviation is 3.2. In addition, the score of using arm and hand ability of the case study of using multisensory activities improved obviously at 4^th week onward.