28 Journal of ICSAR ISSN (print): 2548-8619; ISSN (online): 2548-8600 Volume 5 No 2, July 2021: 28-30 28 Journal of ICSAR ISSN (print): 2548-8619; ISSN (online): 2548-8600 Volume Finger Painting Effectiveness to Improve Sitting Tolerance of Children with Autism Irdamurni, Nurhastuti, Farida Mayar, Ardisal Universitas Negeri Padang, Padang, Indonesia Email: irdamurni@fip.unp.ac.id Abstract: The common issue found in children with hyperactive autism is their excessive mobility, like running around and disturbing their peers in the classroom. As a consequence, they cannot sit still for two minutes. This research aims to examine whether finger painting activity can improve the sitting tolerance of children with hyperactive autism. This research used a single-subject research method. The subject selected for this research was a child with autism. Findings from the research showed that finger painting activity could improve children’s sitting tolerance from 2.5 minutes to 30 minutes. Therefore finger painting has effectively improved the sitting tolerance of children with autism. Keywords: fingerpainting; sitting tolerance; hyperactive autism INTRODUCTION The purpose of education is to educate individuals within society. It means everybody deserves an education, including children with special needs. One of the developmental disabilities is autism. Children with autism are struggling when interacting with people in their surroundings. They encounter many problems; disability to respond to stimuli in their environment, communication failure, and bizarre response to their surroundings. In addition, they have excessive mobility, like running around all day long. The most common issue of children with autism is hypoactive and hyperactive behaviors. Hyperactive autism is excessive mobility. When children cannot sit still, behave the way they want and are easily distracted in one activity. For instance, when playing with toy cars, they get distracted by their peers who play with toy guns. The moment they see others playing with their toy guns, they steal them and leave the toy cars behind (Irdamurni, 2018). Children with hyperactive autism hardly concentrate and often disturb their peers. For this reason, special needs teachers need to be attentive, persevered, creative, and consistent in learning and teaching activities. As a result, the teachers have to create various learning methods to make the children sit and remain calm. One of the solutions is finger painting. Finger painting is an activity given to children with hyperactive autism to improve their sitting tolerance when learning. Sitting tolerance in a learning setting is the period that children can maintain without disturbing their peers. If children sit for more than one minute without disturbing their peers, it means the teacher can teach effectively. Finger painting allows children to exercise their concentration and channel their creativity. In finger painting activity, children are given the freedom to create within their capabilities. They will move their fingers on the cardboard and paint anything. This way, children can remain in their seats and enjoy the activity at the same time. Findings from Suryana’s (2004) research claimed that finger painting is suitable for children with hyperactive autism since they cannot settle and get restless. Thus, finger painting helps in improving their sitting tolerance when learning. This research aims to improve sitting tolerance in a learning setting for children with hyperactive autism using finger painting as the solution. Finger painting activity provided to children is painting with colored tapioca flour or starch flour. The starch flour will be added to food colorings that attract children. After the colors are given, children will paint with their fingers on the cardboard. This activity will get the children messy yet contribute to their creative development. Most parents usually put their children away from messy play and want them to keep clean. However, finger painting is beneficial. It can symbolically express one’s problem with every scratch of the painting. Hence, it helps children to ease their disquiet (Moeslichatoen, 2004). METHOD This research was conducted using a single- subject research method by applying an A-B research design (Sunanto, 2000). A-B research design is a design composed of baseline and treatment or intervention phases (Fraenkel, 1993). The baseline phase is when the target behavior is measured for a period before implementing treatment. The technique used in data recording of this research is children were given task in finger painting activity; children must be observed during the activity; stopwatch was used to time them from the beginning to the end of the activity. 29Irdamurni, Nurhastuti, Farida Mayar, Ardisal, Finger Painting Effectiveness to Improve Sitting . . . Figure 1. Baseline Condition Figure 2. Intervention Condition The instrument and data recording used in this research is direct observational recording. It refers to collecting data by measuring durations of children’s activity. Meanwhile, learning tolerance here refers to the behavior shown by children with hyperactive autism during a learning activity. For example, they were observed whether they can sit still, stop walk around, and do not impulsively act out. According to Daisy Imelda, cited from http://www. bpk Penabur.or.id, tolerance means brevity and patience in facing any threat and assumption, as well as being persevered. As explained in the Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language, tolerance (ketahanan), derived from the word tolerate (tahan), means staying in the situation, durability, fidelity, patience, and persistence. When the prefix and suffix are added, it means the act of composure, tranquility, and patience. Therefore, tolerance in this research refers to the duration of sitting tolerance of children without disturbing their peers during the learning activity. FINDING AND DISCUSSION Finger painting is the activity of painting with fingers. The ingredients used in this activity are tapioca flour added and cooked with aromatic colored liquid. Cardboards were provided, and the paintings were displaying lines and abstract drawings. This activity was implemented repeatedly until children reach the goals; sit still, stop disturbing their peers, and thus teacher can teach effectively. Individuals with autism look as if they live in their world. The term autism was introduced in 1943 by Leo Kenner, though it has existed since centuries ago. Irdamurni (2018) stated that a person with autism is attracted only to their world. The actions they did are suggested by themselves. They look as if they have no interest and do not respond to stimuli. Children with autism, in a social setting, may seem to need others no longer as they act impulsively. Hyperactive autism refers to excessive mobility. When a child cannot settle, behave impulsively, and quickly get distracted during an activity. As a result, they always run around and even climb the table causing other children to get disrupted during a learning activity. Some famous painters paint using only fingers instead of painting tools. These painters are not using traditional tools like brushes to paint. This type of art is outside the typical art (MeryAnn’sArt http://www. fingerpainting). Finger painting activity was conducted on children with hyperactive autism X class—the preparation and method of finger painting according to MeryAnn’sArt http://www.fingerpainting. Analysis of the research was employed by direct observation. Children’s behavior was observed to see whether children can remain sitting without disturbing their peers. Baseline condition was given before an intervention. In the treatment condition, the observation was conducted before or during the intervention. The research was ended after eight days because the data obtained was sufficient to see how the children behave. A task was later given using finger painting, as described in Figure 1. Finger painting is an activity to channel the creativity of children with autism during the learning process. During the activity, children are allowed to paint anything they want. This activity is ideal for children with hyperactive autism as they are not forced during the activity. They paint abstract paintings using flour and even lick the flour because of its flavor. CONCLUSIONS The research findings showed an improvement of sitting tolerance of children with hyperactive autism X through finger painting activity in Permata Bunda Special Education School for Autism in Bukittinggi. 30 Journal of ICSAR; Volume 5 Number 2, July 2021: 28-30 REFERENCES Suryana, A. (2004). Terapi Autisme Anak Berbakat dan Anak Hiperaktif. Jakarta: Pogres Irdamurni, 2018. Memahami Anak Berkebutuhan Khusus. Jawa Barat. Goresan Pena. Fraenkel. J., R. (1993). How To Desing and Evaluate Research in Educational. Singapura. Mc. Gray- Hill Book A-B-C Designs. Sunanto, J. (2000).Single Subyect Research. Makalah disampaikan pada seminar sehari Jurusan PLB FIP UNP Padang tanggal 1 1 November 2000. Moeslichatoen R. (2004). Metode Pengajaran Di Taman Kanak –Kanak. Jakarta: PT Rineka Cipta.