"You're Going to Love This Kid" by Paula Kluth

Chapter 5 review.

Creating a Comfortable Classroom.

As teachers, we spend a great deal of time in our classrooms every year. We spend, what amounts to, 44 24-hour days in our classrooms each year. That is a lot of time. It is in our best interest, and our students' best interest, to make sure our classroom environment is comfortable and organized. This is especially true for children on the spectrum.

Many students on the spectrum are hypersensitive to visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactile stimuli.

Lighting is something that can make a huge difference in terms of comfort in classrooms. Unfortunately, it is one of the more difficult things to manipulate. Most schools come furnished with overhead florescent lights that are extremely bright and agitating for some students. However, teachers may try turning on only a section of those lights and supplementing the other lights with a lamp. A more dimly lit environment will help many students remain calm and focused during independent work.

Sound is something a little bit easier to control. Paula Kluth says that some children on the spectrum interpret everyday sounds (e.g., pencil writing on paper, feet shuffling across the room, eating) like most people interpret nails on a chalkboard. Can every sound be mitigated? Of course not. And I would even argue that trying to remove every annoying sound would do a disservice to our students, who will eventually go out in the real world. No individual on the spectrum will go into a world in which they are protected from every common sound.

However, there are things we can do to help our sound-sensitive students adjust. We can provide earplugs or headphones. We can place them in different areas of the classroom where the sounds are minimized. We can ask our students to be self-advocates and approach us when a sound is bothering them so that we might brainstorm possible solutions.

Another thing that many students like is quiet music (e.g., classical) playing in the background during independent work. This is one of my personal favorites. I have classical music playing in the background whenever I am teaching a group of students. I play it throughout the duration of the class. I have noticed a substantial decrease in distractibility (even for myself) and problematic behaviors.

Seat placement is one of the easiest and most powerful things a teacher can manipulate to help all students. Teachers need to think about many factors when it comes to seating arrangement, not just proximity to the teacher. Here are a few factors a teacher should consider when it comes to seating arrangement:

-Proximity control
-Extraneous noises, visuals, or smells that might distract/agitate a student
-Peers in the classroom
-Access to materials
-View of the whiteboard
-Preference for sitting alone or in a group

One thing became abundantly clear after reading this chapter. Teachers must pay especially close attention to the classroom environment when they are working with students on the spectrum. Teachers need to be open to the idea of changing what they have "traditionally done" to ensure the needs of the individual student are being met. Teachers need to be willing to move away from "TTWWADI" (That's The Way We've Always Done It. Pronounced "titwati". Borowed from Ian Jukes) and be more willing to think outside the box.

On the Intrinsic Motivation for Young Students to Learn

A question came up earlier this year in a meeting that, on the surface, seemed like a fairly easy one to answer: Do elementary-age students have the intrinsic motivation to learn? And, as most answers to these types of questions go, they were varied and diverse. But, like most questions related to education and psychology, the answer, in my opinion, was more complicated than initially thought.

I was curious about our use of the word "learn". Dictionary.com says that it is "to acquire knowledge of or skill in by study, instruction, or experience."

So, one answer might be that the typical, say, 4th grader does not have an intrinsic desire to learn by reading a book or receiving instruction on a given academic subject. Sure, most kids don't have the motivation to learn that way. (Well, unless they are reading the instructional booklet that came with the coolest and newest Lego set on the market.)

But, that answer is assuming that learning occurs only through instruction or study (and by study, we might automatically assume this means to read). And, I don't think of the average elementary-age child as learning that way.

But, let's go back to the question: Do elementary-age children have the intrinsic motivation to learn. And my answer is a definite yes...with some further refinement of the word "learn."

If you put a child in a room with a chair, a desk, and some toy blocks, the typical child will choose to explore the blocks. If left the freedom to choose, he will build structures with the blocks or stack them, or create something with them.

If you put a child in a room with a chair, a desk, and play-doh, the typical child will explore the play-doh; feeling it, manipulating it, building with it.

Now, this seems like "well duh" educational psychology at its best. But, it answers the question. Yes, children have an intrinsic motivation to learn if we define "learn" as explore, create, or manipulate and not "study through reading or instruction". The average child has a strong desire to learn. That is, in fact, what a child is designed to do. Children are designed with an intrinsic desire to understand and manipulate their surroundings. It is how they will be molded into competent and intelligent adults within a society.

So, our charge as elementary teachers is to think of learning as something done beyond the desk and chair. Learning is something children do naturally through exploration, creation, and manipulation.

"Be the person who, when everyone else fails to, sees the good in a thing."

"Be the person who, when everyone else fails to, sees the good in a thing."