It’s a new year, a clean slate. Three students enter the classroom to start a new year.

Pablo: Is a bit slow, easygoing, and easily led around.
Jake: Is a high-energy boy who is ready to take on the world.
Chantel: Is sensitive and protective of her space and attentive to everything around her.

The classroom is set up classroom style with bright colors and instructions on many walls. When filled with children, the chairs scrape across the floor and children talk. The walls are covered with papers, and supplies cover the desks. The teacher gives directions to stop their current activity and move to another activity, but many children are looking at the people walking outside the room.

Pablo sat there quietly but was not sure what to do or where to go. Jake got wound up with all the noises and started running around the room while Chantel became overwhelmed, anxious, and was ready to cry.

How do you help children with such different needs? The first question you need to ask is: What is the environment asking this child to manage before learning can even begin? The classroom environment is not simply the place where learning happens. It is part of the intervention. The classroom sensory environment—including sound, visual input, movement opportunities, physical layout, and predictability—can either support or interfere with a student’s ability to regulate, attend, participate, and learn.

Match Sensory Needs to the Environment

We believe in the importance of creating a good fit between a child’s internal sensory needs and the demands of the classroom environment. When those demands exceed the child’s ability to regulate, organize, and attend, we may see distractibility, anxiety, impulsivity, avoidance, or challenging behavior. Environmental modification is often one of the easiest places to begin because changes in the surroundings can improve the conditions for attention, self-regulation, and learning before we ask the child to work harder.

That does not mean creating a silent, empty classroom. Nor does every child need the same environment. A quieter setting may help a student who is highly sensitive to sound, while another student who is under-responsive may actually function better with more stimulation. The goal is not a “sensory-proof” classroom. The goal is an organized, predictable environment that can be adjusted to the learners within it.

Environmental intervention is preventative. Rather than waiting until a student becomes
overwhelmed, leaves the task, or acts out, we can examine the physical space, sensory load, visual supports, transitions, task presentation, waiting time, communication systems, and routines that make successful behavior either easier or harder.

Look Through the Student’s Eyes—and Ears

Begin with the physical environment. Are work areas clearly defined? Large, open spaces
provide few natural boundaries and may be difficult for a poorly organized student to interpret. Bookcases, furniture, rugs, or partitions can visually establish where one activity ends, and
another begins.

Then look at clutter. A beautifully decorated classroom can still be visually exhausting. Keep frequently used information accessible, but consider whether every wall, hanging decoration, storage bin, and pile of materials is competing with the teacher for attention. Put away equipment after use. Prepare materials before the activity but keep unnecessary supplies outside the student’s visual field.

Listen, too. Heating and air-conditioning systems, hallway activity, chair legs, conversations, and hard surfaces can produce a surprising amount of background sound. Rugs and other sound- absorbing materials may help. Seating a student away from predictable noise sources may be enough to make listening easier.

And remember, behavior gives us information. If a student is successful during one-to-one
instruction but falls apart in the cafeteria, gym, or open classroom, do not look only at the
student. Compare the environments.

Things to Consider:

• What specific work areas are needed? For example, develop a
  • Concentration area where quiet studying or reading occurs;
  • Power area for students who need to engage in movement or heavy work exercise breaks to prepare them for an upcoming task;
  • Quiet/Calming area in which a student may have a beanbag or floor pillows while working and lighting can be dimmed or shaded, or a place for a student to stand to work.
• Are there alternative seating or in-seat options available? (ball chair, wobble chair or inflatable in-seat cushions).
• Make accommodations for students with noise sensitivity e.g., Hearing Safe Noise Reduction Earmuffs.
• Consider Vinyl Covered Floor Cushions for children in circle time or Chair Socks to help decrease noise in the room.

Make the Day Predictable

Physical organization is only part of environmental engineering. What happens within the room matters just as much.

Predictability, structure, and organization can reduce the amount of information a child must continually figure out. Schedules, planned activities, logical activity progressions, concise directions, choices, and preparation for transitions provide this predictability and structure. Even one or two changes in teaching style or classroom organization may improve a student’s ability to process information and participate.

A visual schedule answers, “What happens next?” A clearly defined workspace answers, “Where do I do this?” A first-then arrangement answers, “What do I need to finish before I move on?” A timer answers, “How long?”

These are not merely conveniences. They reduce uncertainty and allow the student to use more of their energy for learning.

Things to Consider

Make the Change, Then Observe

Products should solve an identified problem, not decorate a sensory corner. The important
question is never simply, “What should we buy?” It is, “What is interfering with these
students’ ability to participate, and what environmental change might reduce that
barrier?” Make the change. Observe. Does attention improve? Are transitions easier? Does the student require fewer adult prompts? Does challenging behavior decrease while independence increases? If not, reconsider the hypothesis.

A well-engineered classroom does not remove expectations. It creates the conditions in which students have a better chance of meeting them.

Need more information? These books have much more in-depth explanations and information on these and many other topics. These and many devices to aid in optimizing the classroom environment to enhance academic and behavioral success can be purchased from Therapro at www.Therapro.com.

Guest Bloggers: Carolyn Murray-Slutsky MS OTR, C/NDT, FSIE, FAOTA, and Betty Paris, PT, M.Ed., C/NDT, FSIE