The Development of a Stimulation Guidebook for Children With Special Needs

Parents of children with special needs must be actively involved in their child’s developmental process by providing stimulation at home. A lack of stimulation can hamper the child’s brain development and impact the development of their fine motor skills, gross motor skills, language, and social skills. To help parents, the author designed a stimulation guidebook for the parents of children with special needs. However, it is necessary to review the process of this book regarding the suitability of activities with the basic theory designed to stimulate each particular aspect and perform a validation test. This research was R&D to validate the contents of this guidebook. The research results showed that of the 18 activities with 48 assessment items, 33 items were in the quite valid category and 15 in the very valid category. The activities in this book obtained an average Aiken’s V coefficient of 0.8, which was declared very valid. As for the benefits of this research, it can become a reference source supporting the field of education. Meanwhile, this book can be used by parents, teachers, therapists, and psychologists as a medium for stimulation when providing care and therapy to children with special needs.