WRITING ABILITY ON A CHILDREN WITH MILD MENTAL

RETARDATION

Nisrina Nur Alifah

Faculty of Psychology, Esa Unggul University

Abstract
This study aims to determine the writing ability of mentally retarded children
because one of the characteristics of children with mental retardation is the
ability to write. This study included qualitative descriptive research and data
collection techniques with observation and interviews. Observations were made
by a 14-year-old child who had mild mental retardation and interviews were
conducted by the teacher who taught him daily. The results of this study are
children with mild mental retardation can write clearly even though the writing
still looks irregular.

Key words: mental retardation, writing.

Introduction Mental retardation has several

Mental retardation is a term used
to refer to children who have
intellectual abilities below average.
Children who have mental retardation
are children who have limitations in
some classifications, namely,
limitations on intelligence, social
agility and limitations of other mental
functions (difficult to adapt to new
environments, limitations in language
and lack of ability to consider
something good or bad or right and
wrong).
classifications, namely mild mental
retardation, moderate mental
retardation and severe mental
retardation. Each classification has its
own characteristics and also has
different levels of intelligence.
Mild mental retardation has
intelligence or an IQ of 68-52. In
social problems, children who have
mild mental retardation cannot adapt
themselves independently but they
can be independent and have the
ability for themselves. Children who
have mild mental retardation in the
academic field can still read, write
and count simple if guided properly.
Therefore, children who have mild
mental retardation attend school with
learning difficulties. In
retardation there is a level of
intelligence or an IQ of 51-36 and can
still be used for self-growth and self-
help from danger. Education is very
difficult to learn, but children with
mental retardation are writing social
messages. Whereas children with
severe mental retardation
intelligence or an IQ of 32-20 or the
same mental ability as children who
have been less than 3 years and
assistance from women in total
independence.
Writing skills are not something
that is obtained from birth but is an
activity that is accustomed and
endeavored to be able
communicate in written
Therefore writing skills must be given
and trained in every child, especially
in children who have problems or
disorders such as having mild or
moderate mental retardation. Even
when writing cannot write as he
pleases, there are rules at the time of
writing. The use of uppercase and
lowercase letters also has certain
placements.
Posts made by children with
mild or moderate mental retardation
mental
are not in accordance with the
teacher's expectations at the time of
writing in a two-lined book, such as
something out of the line; reach two
lines; and irregular. And that ability is
constantly being trained by the
teacher, but still has no change.
have Research Question
Based on the description above,
it can be concluded that children who
have mild or severe mental
retardation have different writing
abilities. Therefore, researchers are
interested in conducting research on
1. What is writing ability of a child
with mild or moderate mental
to retardation?
form. 2. How is writing ability on a
children with mild or moderate
mental retardation?
Literary Review
Mental retardation is a condition
in which intelligence develops
obstacles so it does not reach the
optimal development stage. There are
several general characteristics of
mental retardation that can be known,
namely:
a. Intelligence Underdevelopment
Children with mental
retardation have a deficiency in
this case because it is the ability
to learn information and skills
adjusting to new life problems
and situations or the ability to
learn from experience, think
abstractly, creatively, and
critically low. The learning
capacity of abstract mental
retardation children such as
learning to count, write and read
is also limited because their
learning abilities tend to be
without understanding or tend to
learn only by repeating.
b. Social limitations
Children with mental
retardation also have difficulty in
taking care of themselves in the
community, therefore they need
help. Mentally retarded children
tend to be friends with younger
children and also have
dependence on large parents.
c. Limitations of other mental
functions
Children with mental
retardation need more time to
complete the reaction of the
situation they have just known.
Among the several obstacles
experienced by the child of mental
retardation are the obstacles to
writing ability. The results stated that
mentally retarded children experience
impaired writing skills such as
writing sequentially, writing is not
reversed, and the difficulty of
distinguishing letters and numbers in
almost the same shape (Putri, 2013).
According to Text-Oriented
Approach, writing ability is viewed as
the capacity to produce
“acontextually” (Hyland in Yi, 2009)
correct forms of language; following
prescribed patterns at either sentence
or discourse level. Meanwhile, on the
basis of Process/Cognitive Approach
which is focused on what the writer
does during the process of writing
(Nunan in Yi, 2009), writing ability is
defined to initiate and evolve ideas
a
and then use certain revising and
editing practices to develop them to
maturity in a given context.
Method of the Research
This study uses descriptive
qualitative techniques. The subjects
in this study were a 14-year-old child
with mild mental retardation and data
collected using observation and
interview techniques. Observations
were made to see the writing ability of
the subject. Meanwhile, interviews
were conducted with the teacher who
taught him in school
(heteroanamnesa).
Results of the Study
This study was conducted with
children who have mild mental
retardation. Observations were made
when the subjects were asked to write
their own names and home addresses.
When asked to write a name, the
writing still looks irregular but can be
read. However, when asked to write
his home address, the subject asked
the teacher for help to write down his
home address. The way the subject
holds the stationery also looks weak
and inappropriate.
When conducting interviews
with the teacher, the teacher said if
sometimes the subject was still
having trouble writing, the letters
written were sometimes still irregular,
some were still missing the line or
even too small.
Conclusion
Based on the results of the study,
the writing ability in mild mental
retardation children still looks
irregular and not in accordance with
the wishes of the teacher even though
it can be read clearly.
One problem that occurs in
children with mild mental retardation
is intelligence ability that involves
writing skills.
References
Mangunsong, Frieda. 2009. Psikologi
Anak Berkebutuhan Khusus Jilid
1. Depok: LPSP 3.
Putri, Ni Luh. 2013. Kesulitan
Menulis Permulaan Pada Anak
Usia Dini dengan Kelainan
Tunagrahita Ringan. Jurnal Ilmu
Pendidikan, 1(19). Diambil dari:
http://journal.um.ac.id/index.php/j
ip/article/view/3760
Yi, Jyi-yeon. 2009. Defining Writing
Ability for Classroom Writing
Assessment in High School. Pan-
Pacific Association of Applied
Liguistic. 13(1).