The Effect of Family Empowerment on the Development of Sensory, Motor, Visual Perception and Independence in Daily Life Activities of Children with Special Needs

Background: According to the Ministry of State for Empowerment, children with special needs are children who have limitations or exceptionalities, physically, mentally-intellectually, socially or emotionally, which have a greater influence on the growth and development process compared to other children of the same age. Children with Special Needs have sensory, motor, cognitive and visual perception development problems which cause problems with independence in activities of daily living.  Objective: This research aims to determine the effect of the family empowerment program on the development of sensory, motor, visual perception and independence in activities of daily living of children with special needs.  Method: This research uses a pre-experimental research design with a one group pre and post test design to see changes in developmental maturity, as well as independence in activities of daily living before and after receiving intervention. Data analysis in this study was a paired samples t-test.  Conclusion: The results of this research show the effect of providing a family empowerment program on sensory development (p= 0.000), motor (p=0.000), visual perception (p=0.000), and the independence in activities of daily living (p=0.000). So it can be concluded that the family empowerment program (providing monitored training and home programs) has proven to be effective in increasing the development of sensory, motor, visual perception and the independence in activities of daily living in children with special needs.