Encouraging Children with Special Needs’s Talents and Strength

Talent is a repetitive pattern of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that can increase productivity.
Talent is not only defined as a gift that a person has since birth, but also an ability that can be
continuously honed with perseverance and practice. Someone said that everyone is born with
different talents from birth. Everyone has various talents and cannot be generalized. In addition
to academic talent, talent can also be in the form of artistic and sports talent. There is also an
opinion quote that states that talent is the result of a will that continues to be honed from time to
time. Talent will emerge and develop if given a good stimulus. There is no difference with
children in general, children with special needs are also born with their own talents.

The grand final event of Psychology Got Talent 2021 which was held by the Faculty of
Psychology, Universitas Airlangga took many children with special needs as participants. The
grand finalists came from various levels of education, from Kindergarten to Senior High School.
They display a variety of talents ranging from artistic talents such as the art of playing musical
instruments, singing, traditional dance, ballet, painting or drawing, also sports such as karate.

One of the contestants in the grand final round of Psychology Got Talent 2021 that caught the
writer's attention was a contestant with serial number 332 named Radian Hugo Pradityo. Radian
is a 6th grade elementary school student from DKI Jakarta specializing in Autism Spectrum
Disorder. In the Psychology Got Talent 2021, Radian appeared with musical talent which is
playing piano and drums. In his performance, he performed the traditional songs “Cik Cik
Periuk” and “Suwe Ora Jamu” with piano instruments. As for the drums, Radian played the song
"Believer" which is a song sung by the band Imagine Dragons.

His musical performances invited praise and positive comments from the jury, Dr. Ida, who said
that Radian's drum and piano playing had good coordination and rhythm. She also believes that
if Radian's talent is developed, it is very possible to take him as a professional music player in
the future. According to the mother's testimony, Radian has been playing the piano since the age
of six, as well as the piano.

Radian and many contestants from the Psychology Got Talent grand final proved that children
with special needs have potential and capacities that are not much different from most people.
Where the talent and potential they bring must be explored and developed properly so that later
they can have a good impact when they grow up. To be able to optimize the talents of children
with special needs, support from the closest people, such as family, is needed. Like other
children, they need to be given the opportunity to be introduced to a variety of positive activities
in order to explore themselves.

Even though in reality, many parents have not been able to provide support to children with
special needs so that their talents are not highlighted. This generally occurs because parents have
not been able to accept the condition of the child and do not think that a well-developed child's
talent interest can lead the child to become an independent person when growing up. Another
possibility is that parents are too focused on their children's academic abilities and do not know
that the intelligence of children, including children with special needs, does not only lie in the
academic field.

In fact, for children with special needs, talent can not only be optimized for intellectual potential,
but also for other intelligences such as art, language, interpersonal relationships and others. In
the immediate environment such as family and school environment, children with special needs
need to be assessed by the closest person such as parents or teachers. By doing an assessment,
caregivers can find out the conditions, characteristics and interests of children's talents from an
early age so that they can then be developed. It also helps children with special needs to feel
more positive, confident, and have a better view of themselves so that they can have a good
impact into adulthood.