Development and Preliminary Evaluation of SOBATKU Social Story Digital Media for Body Boundaries and Privacy Understanding Among Children with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

Children with intellectual disabilities require concrete, visual, and structured learning materials to understand body boundaries and privacy. This study aimed to develop and preliminarily evaluate SOBATKU Digital Media (Social Story of My Body Boundaries and Privacy) as a learning medium to support this understanding. A research and development approach was employed using the ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation). The participants were six children with mild intellectual disabilities aged 8–12 years at the UPTD Disability Services Center in Sidoarjo Regency, Indonesia. Data were collected through expert validation, practicality questionnaires, observations, and pretest–posttest assessments. Data were analyzed using descriptive percentages, the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test, and normalized gain (N-Gain). The results indicated that the research instruments achieved 98% validity, while the media received 94% ratings from both material and media experts. Practicality was rated 95%, and learning implementation was 96%. The mean understanding score increased from 76.67 on the pretest to 96.67 on the posttest, with a statistically significant difference (Wilcoxon p = 0.031) and a high N-Gain of 0.86. These findings indicate that SOBATKU is feasible and practical and shows preliminary evidence of improved understanding of body boundaries and privacy. However, the small sample and one-group pretest–posttest design limit causal interpretation. Further studies involving larger samples and controlled research designs are needed to confirm these preliminary findings.