Gestures of special needs students in completing addition and subtraction operations through proton–electron media

Gestures have only become a concern in recent years. The gesture serves to understand one's thoughts in solving problems if verbal communication is inadequate. This study explores the gestures that appear in students with special needs in the material. The type of research used is qualitative research with an explorative, descriptive method. Six students with special needs with a mixed class of deaf and mentally retarded were used as subjects in this study. The research instrument used was a video of the learning process. The data obtained were audiovisual recordings of six students with special needs who were deaf and mentally retarded in understanding the material for addition and subtraction operations with the help of proton and electron media. The data were analyzed by looking at any gestures during the learning process. The study results show that almost all of the gestures that appear are gesturesrepresentational by type iconic. This gesture describes a particular object or concept using the arm or hand that can be accompanied by speech. Sometimes the motion shown by students is correct, but what is spoken is incorrect. This implies that teachers must pay attention to student gestures during the learning process and listen to verbal communication from students.