Traditional game therapy: does it have any effect on the motor ability of children with special needs?

Abstract

The study purpose of this study aims to determine the influence of traditional sports therapy on improving the motor skills of children with special needs. The population of this study is all students of special needs school Sukoharjo and Karanganyar Central Java Province, Indonesia, while the sample of this study is SLBN Sukoharjo and Karanganyar students of as many as 30 people. Research sampling techniques use purposive sampling. Materials and methods. The data collection technique in this study through a special needs motory ability test consisted of a zigzag run test, softball throw, wall pass, medicine ball-putt, and a 30-meter run. Quasi method experiments with quantitative approaches were used in this study, while the study’s constellation uses the design of two group pretest and posttest design. Data analysis techniques use descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Descriptive analysis aims to describe the characteristics of this study whereas inferential analysis uses paired test analysis at a significant level α = 0.05, overall, the data analysis is used in the SPSS program version 25.0. Results. The results of this study can be argued that traditional sports game therapy can improve the motor skills of children with special needs. However, this study is only limited to knowing the motor skills of children with special needs in special needs school Karanganyar and Sukoharjo. It is recommended for further research by considering psychological, psychosocial, and other factors with improved physical fitness in children with special needs as a whole. Conclusions. This research can be concluded that there is an influence of traditional game therapy on the improvement of motor skills of children with special needs in special needs school Sukoharjo and Karanganyar.