Environmental Arrangements
Our Thoughts on Environmental Arrangements:
When considering environmental arrangements in your classroom for individuals with autism, it is vital that you consider creating an inclusive atmosphere that is mindful of what that particular individual student needs. As mentioned throughout this site, knowing one individual with autism, and how that person responds to the environment, does not mean one can generalize about what all students with autism might need as far as environmental arrangements and supports.
Here we list some general ideas to consider when creating an inclusive environment for every student, although we stress that what you end up doing in your own classroom should depend on the needs of the students who you will come to know. The supports may range from sensory, physical, or instructional. It is important to keep the following in mind: “Supports for people on the autism spectrum should reflect the respect and dignity due to all people and address the challenges with which people struggle in organizing and regulating themselves in response to the sensory environment and their movement differences” (Leary & Donnellan, 2012, p. 37).
What can various environmental arrangements look like in the classroom?
Dynamic Seating:
Wiggle cushions
Ball chair
Standing desk
Cube chair
Deskerciser
Schedule
When creating a schedule for an individual student with autism, it is important to find a balance between a flexible and rigid schedule that fits the student's unique needs.
Flexibility
"a lot of autistic people also need a lot of flexibility in schedules for a bunch of reasons!..."
"a lot of autistic people have fluctuating skills that are hard to predict so one can’t say “I am going to do X at a particular time” so much as “I am going to do X at a particular time, skill fluctuations willing” (which includes fluctuations in how many spoons a task takes and whether it is distressing or painful- a kid may be *able* to do a task but it may be a really bad idea). a lot of people have different days when they learn best different ways and when they can do different parts of different things..." -Stimmyabby (read her blog here!)
Rigidity
“Since receptive/expressive language and transitions can be difficult for some learners, knowing what is going to happen each school day can be a big source of anxiety. Some students may not understand when a teacher or parent explains the order of daily events. Pictures are a great way to help explain what is going to happen next. There are a few ways you can use a visual schedule.” - Sasha Long (read more here!)
Visual Schedule Planner - An app available on iTunes to create visual schedules for students in the classroom.
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Learning Needs: by providing a digital means for students to view their daily schedule, this app allows another means of accessibility from which students can prepare for transitions throughout the day or changes to the normal schedule through customizable sounds and symbols
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Benefits: individualized visual schedules that are designed to give individuals an audio/visual representation of the “events in their day;” also, events that require more support can be linked to an activity schedule or video clip to help model the task even further
Velcro visual schedules - Daily schedules using movable Velcro symbols/pictures
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Learning Needs: kinesthetic access through physical movement of symbol, helps students transition between events in daily schedule and understand order of day's events.
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Benefits: customizable visual representation of the “events in their day;” suitable for younger students struggling to use technological devices.
