THE INVESTIGATION OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION TOWARDS AN AUTISM CHILD

Abstract

This research purposes to investigate the types of nonverbal communication used by an autism child during his activity in Pusat Layanan Autis Jati Kersa and home, and to describe the meanings of those nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication is a communication form that delivers the message without word, written or spoken, but uses body language including facial expression, gesture, posture, eye contact, touching, clothing, space, and paralanguage. Autism is developmental disorder especially in the brain that causes autism people are difficult to communicate and interact. The research employed a qualitative method to collect and analyze the data. This research involved an autism child in low function level. The data were collected through observation and interview. The result of this research shows that an autism child uses several nonverbal communication types such as body movement; gesture, posture, eye contact, and facial expression; paralanguage; and personal presentation; touching (haptics) as well. Then, the meanings of nonverbal communication used by the autism child are various. Each nonverbal communication used by him has its own meaning.

Keywords: communication, nonverbal communication, autism