Communication Strategies Used by Autism Character in The Film I Am Sam : A Psycholinguistic Study

NOVIA KURNIA SARI. Communication strategies used by autism character in the film I Am Sam: A Psycholinguistic Study (supervised by Abidin Pammu and Simon Sitoto)

This study aims to analyze the use of communication strategies, forms of verbal and nonverbal language, such as the symptoms shown by autistic sufferers in the film I Am Sam.

The research method used in this study is a qualitative descriptive method to analyze the data. In detail, the writer watched the film I Am Sam. Then the writer carefully observed and listened to the conversations in the film, read the film script, recorded and documented important things during the research, then identified the conversations that were included in verbal, nonverbal communication strategies and the symptoms shown by the main character as a mild autistic sufferer.

The results of the research shows that there are 2 data that fall into the category of communication strategies, namely verbal language and nonverbal language. The data is divided into 15 data on the use of verbal language, 7 data on the use of nonverbal language, and 9 data that shows behavioral symptoms of people with autism. The types of verbal language used are speaking, writing, and reading. As for the types of nonverbal language used namely, emblem, adapter, touch, affect displays, and illustrator. In addition, the symptoms of autism shown are conscientious to things that are small and patterned, apprehensiveness about various social situations or activities outside of routine, and difficulty understanding what other people are thinking or feeling.