Communication board as a Montessori apparatus in teaching mathematics to autism students

The research of mathematics teachers and instructors is still focused on normal students. Students with special needs are often ruled out. In fact, they also need to learn mathematics. Mathematics is a very basic subject and must be mastered by everyone, including students with special needs. This research is intended to apply mathematics learning to autism students by using communication boards as a Montessori apparatus. Communication is chosen because autistic students have a visual learning style. Furthermore, the learning method is done with Montessori because it takes the concept of learning with the environment, in accordance with the main purpose of learning for autism students to be able to live independently and be empowered in the community. The study used the descriptive qualitative method. According to the research results several Montessori apparatuses have been chosen used including visual schedules, visuals to structure the environment, visual scripts, a visual rule reminder, the visual task analysis, and a choice board