THE COMBINATION OF NEURO SENSORY AND GLUTEN FREE CASEIN FREE (GFCF) DIET INFLUENCES THE BEHAVIOR OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN AT THE MITRA INSAN MANDIRI GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT CLINIC PONOROGO

KOMBINASI NEURO SENSO DAN DIET GLUTEN FREE CASEIN FREE (GFCF) BERPENGARUH TERHADAP PERILAKU ANAK AUTIS DI KLINIK TUMBUH KEMBANG MITRA INSAN MANDIRI PONOROGO

Abstract

Introduction: Autism is included in the group of Children with Special Needs (ABK) who experience mental disorders and neurodevelopmental disorders. Thus, autistic children experience disabilities in communication, social interaction, lack of attention, and behavioural disorders. Providing neuro senso and the Gluten Free Casein Free (GFCF) diet is an effort to reduce autistic behaviour. Methods: This research is a quantitative research with a quasi-experimental pre and post test. The samples in this study amounted to 30 samples which were divided into 15 experimental group samples and 15 control group samples. The instruments in this research were the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) questionnaire to determine children's gluten and casein consumption scores, the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to determine the level of behaviour in autistic children. Data analysis used the SPSS Shapiro Wilk and the Paired T-Test. Results: After being given treatment in the form of a combination of neuro senso and Gluten Free Casein Free (GFCF) diet for 1 month (3x/week), the results of the evaluation showed good results, namely the FFQ score decreased and the SDQ score also decreased. Thus, the combination of neuro senso and the GFCF diet is said to be successful in reducing the level of behavior in autistic children (p=0.00 or p<0.05). Conclusion: Providing a combination of neuro senso and a Gluten Free Casein Free (GFCF) diet is effective in reducing levels of behavior in autistic children.