Parenting Education as Efforts to Improve Parents' Knowledge in Guiding Children with Special Needs Study at Home

Seeing the difficulties faced by parents in guiding their children to study at home, especially children with special needs, parenting education is an effort to increase parents' knowledge about the guidance of children with special needs studying at home is very important. It aims to provide solutions to the various problems experienced by parents so that they can carry out their role in guiding children with special needs to study well at home. The subjects of this study were parents of students from a school in West Java. The activity carried out was the provision of material on guiding children with special needs to study at home through WhatsApp media which was presented in the form of microblogs and PDFs. This study concludes that parents gain new knowledge about guiding children with special needs to study at home. © 2021 Kantor Jurnal dan Publikasi UPI Article History: Received 21 Oct 2020 Revised 21 Nov 2020 Accepted 28 Nov 2020 Available online 01 Dec 2020 ____________________ Keyword: Children with special needs, Knowledge Parenting education, Parents, Studying at home Jurnal Asesmen Dan Intervensi Anak Berkebutuhan Khusus Jurnal homepage: https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/jassi/index Journal homepage: http://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/IJCSNE/ Jurnal Asesmen dan Intervensi Anak Berkebutuhan Khusus 20 (2) (2020) 133-142 Aqmar et al. Parenting Education as Efforts to Improve Parents’ Knowladge ... | 134 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10. 17509/xxxxt.vxix pISSN 1412-9337 eISSN 2776-8783


A B S T R A C T S A R T I C L E I N F O
Seeing the difficulties faced by parents in guiding their children to study at home, especially children with special needs, parenting education is an effort to increase parents' knowledge about the guidance of children with special needs studying at home is very important. It aims to provide solutions to the various problems experienced by parents so that they can carry out their role in guiding children with special needs to study well at home. The subjects of this study were parents of students from a school in West Java. The activity carried out was the provision of material on guiding children with special needs to study at home through WhatsApp media which was presented in the form of microblogs and PDFs. This study concludes that parents gain new knowledge about guiding children with special needs to study at home.

INTRODUCTION
The current Covid-19 has changed all aspects of people's lives, including the education aspect. Learning at all levels of education starting from Kindergarten to Higher Education is carried out online. This is based on a circular from the Ministry of Education and Culture on March 17, 2020, regarding Online Learning and Working from Home in the Context of Preventing the Spread of Coronavirus Disease . The lesson is, with this online learning, it seems as if it is proof that the main and first education for children is in their own homes, namely by their parents, especially for students who are still not independent when studying so they need guidance and assistance from their parents. However, along the way, parents have encountered many obstacles and obstacles. Among them are parents who do not understand the material being taught, children are difficult to invite to learn, difficulty dividing time because they have to work, parents' emotional management is not good when guiding children, parents are still unfamiliar with using gadgets, and there are obstacles related to internet access (Wardani, 2020). When it comes to guiding children at home, many parents are overwhelmed. During this pandemic, there was an increase in the number of violence against children as many as 367 cases of violence (Kandedes, 2020).
Based on research conducted by (Pratiwi & Fitriyana, 2021) entitled "Penyuluhan Untuk Orang Tua Mengenai Kejenuhan Belajar Anak di Masa Pandemi Covid-19" explains that parents gain new knowledge after receiving the counseling. In this study, counseling uses video media, where the drawback is that parents who have minimal storage space are reluctant to open the video because the video media will take up more space. Another research conducted by (Najwa', 2020) entitled "Studi Deskriptif Program Parenting Education Berbasis Online di PAUD Permata Bangsa Tahun Pelajaran 2020/2021". In the study, it was explained that the implementation of parenting education was important to do considering that many parents had problems while educating and guiding their children to study at home. However, in practice, they only conduct discussions and share experiences about educating and caring for children at home with other resource persons and parents in the WhatsApp group. Another study entitled "Penyuluhan Pengasuhan Efektif di Masa Bencana Melalui Parenting Education Berbasis Online" written by Utami, W., et al (2020). In the study, it was explained that the presentation of the material given to parents in parenting education was through the WhatsApp group media directly, and the focus of the study given focused on psychological problems such as managing negative emotions and psychological impacts in parenting children during independent study. Another study entitled "Whatsapp-Based Nutritional Parenting: Digital Literacy To Support A Healthy Generation of Achievements" was conducted by Ambari Sumanto, R.P., et al (2020). In the study, it was explained that this digital literacy activity was carried out through the WhatsApp group media where one of the activities was through sharing sessions on various experiences related to fulfilling nutrition in children, providing material, and discussion forums that were open indefinitely. The weakness of this research is that the media used in giving the material is not explained. Until now there has been no research entitled Parenting Education as an Effort to Increase Parents' Knowledge in Guiding Children with Special Needs to Study at Home.
Students with special needs are students who have developmental and academic barriers (Maryanti, et al., 2020). They need stimulus from the surrounding environment, especially from parents. Parents are the main and first educators for children, especially those with special needs. Therefore, parents need to be given an understanding of how to guide their children to learn, especially for children with special needs during the pandemic. The novelty in this research is the provision of parenting materials education presented in the form of a microblog and the material in the form of a Portable Document Format (PDF). Therefore, it is hoped that this activity will provide convenience in understanding the material presented.
Parenting education as an effort to increase parents' knowledge about guiding children with special needs to study at home is very important because they see the difficulties faced by parents in guiding their children to study at home, especially children with special needs. This activity was carried out for parents of students from one school in West Java which aims to provide solutions to parents for various problems experienced in guiding children with special needs to study at home so that parents can carry out their roles well. The material is given through WhatsApp which is presented in the form of a microblog and PDF. From this research parents will gain new knowledge about guiding children with special needs to study at home.

METHODS
Given the unfinished condition of the Covid-19 pandemic, the method used in this study was carried out online using WhatsApp group media because parents find it difficult to access other applications such as video conferencing, YouTube, and other applications. The target of this activity is parents of students from one school in West Java which will be held on July 3 -31, 2021, with the provision of material carried out four times, namely on July 13, 16, 18, and 25, 2021. This activity plan goes through the following stages.
(i) Interviews to find out the difficulties of parents in guiding children to study at home which was carried out via WhatsApp. (ii) Making parenting education media. (iii) Providing previously prepared materials in the form of a microblog and portable document format (PDF) to parents via WhatsApp group. (iv) The final evaluation was carried out through interviews via WhatsApp to parents to find out the usefulness of the activities that had been carried out Table 1 shows materials design efforts to increase parents' knowledge which create in the form of a microblog with the theme and material presented in the form of portable documents format (PDF). The material is created based on the writings of parenting experts.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Various problems such as violence against children, gadget addiction, delays in children's development stages such as speech delays, moral degradation of children in adolescence, and other problems related to children continue to occur. This can happen because of the less than the optimal role of parents in children's education. Many parents delegate their role in children's education to formal institutions, even though the first and foremost obligation to fulfill children's education is within the family, namely through their parents.
Most of the time spent by children is in the family environment, so the family is the main and first place for learning for children. In the family environment, parents have a big role in children's education, parents have an important role in their duties and responsibilities towards all family members which are more in the form of character and character formation, skills training, and household provisions, and the like (Ruli, 2020). So, it is proper for parents to be role models or models that their children always imitate and imitate.  Education at home is the foundation stone of a child's personality in the future, this is in accordance with the words of the Prophet Muhammad shalallahu 'alaihi wasallam which reads, "No one is born except in his nature (Islam). It was his parents who made him a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian." But at this time we find many parents who are not ready to become parents, so when faced with various challenges and problems parents have not been able to overcome them.
Children with special needs are part of a vulnerable community because they have limited abilities, where children with special needs are slow learners or slow learners so they have lower achievements than children in general (Ulva & Amalia, 2020). In guiding children with special needs, parents need to know and understand the characteristics of children to be able to create learning strategies that suit their needs.
Parenting education is education that is devoted to parents in which it examines the patterns and ways of parenting of children (Arifin & Syaiful, 2020). This parenting training program was created to help parents improve their quality in matters relating to their children (Roshonah, 2019). According to Andani et al. (2016), it is stated that the Parenting Education Program is an educational program given to parents so that the knowledge possessed by parents increases the growth and development of children and so that the education obtained by children at home and school can be aligned. According to Qadafi (2019), it is stated that Parenting education is a support program for parents or other family members so that they can carry out social and educational functions in terms of nurturing, caring for, protecting, and educating their children at home, so that children can grow and develop optimally according to their age and stage of development. Parenting education has several terms such as parenting club, school parenting, and parenting school (Mauanah, 2016) (Arifin & Syaiful, 2020). However, these terms sometimes only use the term parenting and are known as tarbiyah al-Aulad in Arabic which means educating children (Arifin & Syaiful, 2020).
Based on the activity plan that has been made, the first stage is conducting interviews with parents of students from one of the schools in West Java. Through the interview, it was known that there were several difficulties and obstacles faced by parents in guiding their children to study at home, namely, firstly, children were lazy to study at home. Actually, in this case, the child cannot be blamed entirely, because parents as educators should be able to look for innovation in creating the impression of "my home is my school." So it can be said that parents still do not know how to create conducive and pleasant home conditions so that children are still eager to learn at home. The second difficulty is the lack of ability of parents to control emotions when children are difficult to learn and difficult to understand the material being taught. Controlling emotions is not easy to do, but this also has an impact on the first obstacle, namely children are lazy to learn. If parents are not able to be patient and always scold their children, the children will be reluctant to study with their parents. Children will prefer to study with their teachers at school. Therefore, everything returns to the readiness and disposition of parents in guiding children to study at home. This is evidenced by one of the parents of students who explained that when learning online, their children were still eager to learn even though study at home. He explained that there was a difference when he scolded his son and when he was patient and persuaded the child to study gently. When you are patient and gently seduce the child, the child is willing to learn and be guided by his parents.
In this study, the effort made was to use media that was easy to access by parents, namely using social media WhatsApp. Based on the survey results, it is stated that WhatsApp is the second-highest social media that is widely accessed in Indonesia with a presentation of 83% (Zulfaya, 2020). In addition, based on interviews with parents, the easiest social media for parents to reach is WhatsApp, because accessing other media is constrained by internet quotas.
The next activity is to create material content in the form of a microblog. The material presented is related to tips for guiding children to study at home. The title of the microblog taken is "Parents Need to Know: Tips for Guiding Children to Study at Home" concerning the article entitled "Tips to Join SFH (Study from Home) Children" written by one of the experts and parenting practitioners. Microblog is an innovation in the world of communication, using short posts (Putra A. & Irwansyah, I., 2020 form of communication compared to blogs in general which provide detailed information but are sometimes difficult to attract readers (Putri, K., 2018). In addition, the material given to parents is in the form of a portable document format (PDF). Based on research conducted by (Kamim, 2017) it is the most popular and most widely used online file because it is easy to process and download. In addition, almost all mobile phones can open files in the form of portable document format (PDF) so that no other application is needed, so it will be easier for parents to read it. Figure 1 shows the first tip to guide the children with special needs to study at home. The material is created in the form of a microblog whit an attractive design. The first tip is "Always Learn." When parents will provide understanding to their children when guiding learning, parents need to also understand the material presented. Parents will not be able to provide or will not be able to guide their children to learn if they are not nurtured with science. It can be said that the concept of "Always Learning" refers to the concept of longlife learning or lifelong learning which is not limited to formal education. The concept of lifelong education is sometimes associated with non-formal education because it requires students to follow the learning process until they are old and as long as the person is still alive (Hairani, 2018).

Materials on Tips for Guiding Children with Special Needs Study at Home #1
Prophet Muhammad shalallahu 'alaihi wa sallam reads, "Seeking knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim" (HR. al-Baihaqi). In his words, shalallahu 'alaihi wa sallam, it is not explained how long a person will study, so it is fitting for us to continue learning even though it is not in a formal institution. Another interesting thing is that the initial concept of lifelong learning, turned out to adopt words that are familiar to the ears of Muslims, which means "Seek knowledge from the womb (cradle) to the hole." (Hairani, 2018).
With the changing times that are increasingly changing and developing, it is also very demanding for parents to learn. Learning to be able to educate children in accordance with increasingly severe challenges due to the increasingly complex changes that occur. With these changes, the need for learning will continue to grow, with broader concepts and forms of learning (Hairani, 2018). The development of technology also greatly facilitates parents to continue learning wherever and whenever, so there is no reason not to learn.  Figure 2 shows the second tip to guide the children with special needs to study at home. The second tip is "Create Curriculum, Plans, and Priorities According to Children's Needs and Age Levels." Planning here is related to the development of the potential and talents of the child. Developing children's potential and talents is the initial capital to determine their future careers (Huda & Munastiwi, 2020). In addition, the development of children's potential and talents is the implementation of educational goals explained by Emi Munastiwi that potential, talent, and creativity are capital to face various problems and problems of life (Munastiwi, 2018). Prima (2020) stated that there are several steps that parents can take in their role in educating children, including parents as role models, motivators, main mirrors for children, and children's facilitators. Regarding children's talents, parents also have an important role so that children can develop their talents. In (The role of parents in developing) it is stated that these roles include:

Material Tips for Guiding Children with Special Needs Study at Home #2
1. Accept children as unique individuals who have different characteristics from other children and do not demand children. As a parent, focus on the strengths of your child, don't compare with other children, because every child is different. Develop the strengths that children have. 2. Cultivate discipline in children. 3. Cultivate children's interest and curiosity. By growing this, parents will easily detect the talents of their children so that they can be developed from an early age. 4. Facilitate or provide children with media for the development of their talents and always motivate and support children's activities.
Children's education is not only the task of formal institutions, but also parents must provide education and guidance to adult children (Magdalena et al, 2020). Therefore, this pandemic period is not an excuse for not being able to develop children's potential and talents because parents can also do it while their children study at home. Parents can still develop their children's potential, talents, and creativity with several strategies, such as providing freedom to play after learning on the condition that the game can stimulate children's potential, talent, and creativity (Huda, 2020). The existence of an intense relationship between children and parents will also have a positive influence on children's growth and development (Iftitah & Anawati, 2020). Parents can also consult with educational institutions such as schools where children study so that the planning carried out can be in accordance with the stages and development of the child.  Figure 3 shows the third tip to guide the children with special needs to study at home. The third tip is "Make Home a Comfortable and Fun School." Fun learning is learning that makes children relax, there is no pressure, feels safe, fosters interest in learning, full participation, children focus and concentrate fully, interesting environmental conditions, make enthusiasm, and are also happy (Nihayati, 2020). In addition, in creating a comfortable home atmosphere, all learning facilities for children are fulfilled such as books, study tables, games, and others. However, the game used is a game that does not distract the child so that the child plays all day and does not learn.

c. Material Tips for Guiding Children with Special Needs Study at Home#3
In the material "This is How to Guide Children to Study at Home" it was explained that ideally, parents use various ways of learning that are fun or joyful learning so that in the learning process children feel happy and do not get bored easily. Parents can also use children's favorite objects or toys as learning media so that this will increase the child's speed in understanding the material presented. In addition, parents can stimulate children's sensory-motor abilities using creative ways so that children are happier when learning

Materials: How to Guide Children to Study at Home
The fourth material is "This is how to guide children to study at home." The last material is given using Portable Document Format (PDF) media. The material contains a little mention about the definition of children, then the main discussion is about tips for guiding children to study at home, and contains the minutes of a question and answer session between the presenters and participants which raises many concrete examples as well as facts and problems in the field regarding online learning in early childhood which can increase the insight and knowledge of parents regarding child development and assisting children to study at home. The next stage in this activity is evaluation. The evaluation here is carried out by interviewing the parents of the school's guardians to find out the usefulness of the material that has been delivered. Based on interviews, parents understand the content of the material that has been made, besides that, there is also an increase in knowledge in guiding children with special needs to study at home. Through these materials, parents are aware of some of their mistakes in guiding children to study at home, so that there is a change in behavior in guiding children to study at home. Parents become more patient and begin to implement the knowledge that has been obtained to the best of their ability.

CONCLUSION
Based on the results of interviews regarding what has been given, it shows that there is an increase in parental knowledge about guiding children to study at home. These activities can help parents with special needs in parental behavior when guiding children with special needs to study at home. The next recommendation is to develop microblog content in parenting education because the content can be made short, dense, and clear.